I need a date
by spiffytgm
Summary: Stephanie dreads hearing these words, but could this be something different?
1. Chapter 1 Dinner

**_This is how I envision Stephanie and Ranger getting together (finally). The Characters belong to Janet Evanovich, and the mistakes are all my own. I don't get anything from this other than my own enjoyment. Please leave feedback, and let me know what you think. This is my first attempt at the Plum Universe!_**

I was meeting Morelli for dinner at Pino's, and I was running late. I had been covered in things best left unmentioned after another semi-succesful day ridding the streets of Trenton of the ususal gang of scofflaws. I had to take a shower and change into clothes without holes in the knees, I mean, what would my mother think?

My Name is Stephanie Plum. I work as a bounty hunter for my cousin Vinnie. Bounty hunting isn't as exciting as it may seem. Most of the time it's very tedious. I round up the same people for the same things time and time again. Sometimes there's an added element of fun, like wrestling Punky Balog covered in Vaseline, or finding an exploding dye pack in a briefcase with THE Brenda. Today I just fell down the steps and landed in someone's garbage again.

Morelli was waiting for me at our usual table. Boy, I'm glad I spent the time to blow dry my hair and add extra mascara, because he looks fine. He looks as good as always in a laid back, Italian way, with dark hair and dreamy eyes. We've been getting in trouble together since I was 6, and are currently very on in the on again / off again relationship we seem to have developed.

"Hey, cupcake, I ordered us some wine since you were running late. you look good as always." He smiled at me, but it seemed as though he was a million miles away. Dinner was good, and conversation was light. Who needs to talk when you can be doing some serious eating, anyway?

When our waitress brought out dessert, Joe put down his fork and looked entirely too serious for comfort. "Steph, we need to talk. I found out today that I'm getting promoted to Lieutenant. That means that for the most part, I won't be working the streets anymore. I think it's time I grew up. I think I'm ready to start a family. Bob needs kids to play with and a mom at home. You know I love you, and I want it to be you that I come home to at night."

I was stunned. My jaw fell open so far that a piece of cake fell out and hit the table. I scrambled, and the words came out of my mouth before I even thought. "Your grandma Bella hates me! She's always giving me the eye and telling me how horrible I am!"

Joe smiled. "Cupcake, there's no such thing as the eye. Besides, once you make an honest man out of me, Grandma will love you. She can't be mad at the mother of her great-grandkids!"

That brought me to my next horrible thought. "You want me to stay at home and have kids? What about my job?"

"Stephanie, be reasonable!" Joe said as calmly as he could. I could see the vein throbbing in his temple. "You are the worst bounty hunter I've ever seen! Every day is a disaster where you get a car blown up, or yet another death threat, or kidnapped, or thrown off a bridge. It's a miracle you manage to bring in enough skips to pay your rent! Let Joyce Barnhardt play big bad bounty hunter. I'm asking you to marry me!"


	2. Chapter 2 Late night phone call

_**Once again, this is Janet Evanovich's world, I'm just renting an apartment. All mistakes are mine**_

It was about 1:00 a.m. when I called my sister Valerie. After assuring her that everything was fine, she agreed to come over. Valerie used to be known as Saint Val, who never did anything wrong. She married the perfect guy, had two daughters, and moved to California to do her best to be Meg Ryan. That was the old Val. After her husband ran away with the babysitter and left her with a mountain of debt, Valerie came home to Trenton. She got pregnant again, went a little nuts, but eventually married the baby's daddy, Albert Kloughn. The thing is, I actually like her a lot better now that I know she's just as goofy as the rest of us.

"What's going on?" My sister asked me when she walked in. "The last time we had a 2:00 girl talk was right before I married my loser ex."

"I need to tell you something, and I need you to keep it to yourself for a little while." I told her. "I know this is big news, and I don't want to deal with mom just yet. Morelli asked me to marry him tonight."

"OhmyGod!" My sister shrieked. "That's WONDERFUL! This is HUGE! Mom and Grandma are gonna go nuts. I know it's early, but did you set a date? You want to get a jump on renting a hall, then you have to think about dresses, and flowers, and..."

"Stop." I begged her. "This is why I don't want mom to know yet. The thing is, I told him no."

"You WHAT?" I've never actually seen someone have a stroke, but I think Val came really close just them. "What happened? I thought this was your dream."

I was in tears when I laid it all out for her. "We were sitting in Pino's eating dinner when he proposed. He expects me to quit my job and start on a family right away. The longer I sat there thinking about it, the more I realized that even though I've dreamt about marrying Morelli for years, this wasn't the life I've dreamed of at all." By now I was sobbing uncontrollably. My sister gave me a big hug, and I carried on. "I don't want to quit my job. It may not be the best job in the world, but I like what I do. I'm not ready for kids, and I don't know if I ever will be. Joe's grandma calls me the devil and curses me every time she sees me. The worst part is that I feel like if I marry him, I have to give up the girl I want to be."

My sister held onto me, rocking me and kissing the top of my head, like I was one of her own girls. "Are you sure?" she asked me.

"Yes."

"Ok, then. You're right not to want to tell mom. She'll have a fit. But you've got to realize that she's gonna get a million phone calls about this by tomorrow morning. The Burg Grapevine is gonna have a cow over this. I'll tell mom to let you have a day or two, but you're going to have to face the music."


	3. Chapter 3 - Lula

**_This is Janet Evanovich's world. I'm just going to a viewing with Grandma Mazur..._**

BANG BANG BANG... Someone was pounding on my door, and I had a feeling I knew who it was. BANG BANG BANG. "Girl, you better be dead in there, cause I'm about to shoot the lock off this door!" Yep, it was Lula, and she meant what she said. She would try to shoot my lock off, but with Lula's aim, she'd probably wind up drilling six holes in my door and shoot me in the foot instead.

"Dont shoot! I'm coming." I yelled from the safety of my kitchen. When she yelled that I'd better hurry up and get this door open, I figured the coast was clear and opened up. Lula is a plus sized woman with a petite sized wardrobe. She didn't disappoint today, wearing a Leopard print tank top and poison green spandex mini skirt. Her hair was done in Shirley Temple curls, with matching green spirals woven in.

"Well, you may not be dead, but I've sure seen you look better." Lula checked me out from head to toe. "You got bags under your eyes I could pack all my shoes in, and it looks like you been wearing those ratty sweats for a month! Nobody's heard from you all week, Skips are piling up at the office, and Vinnie's yelling at everyone, looking like he has a hernia. Girl, I don't know what happened, but the rumor mill is going wild. They saying everything from Morelli dumped you for Joyce Barnhardt, to you tried to shoot him. Not that I'm going to pry, but I figured you'd probably want to tell your side of the story to your good friendLula."

"The short story is Morelli proposed, and I said no. He came over the next day to talk about it, and I decided that I gave him the right answer. We're completely done, and moving on. My life is in the toilet, and I needed some time to sort it out." I could feel the tears start to gather, but I was done with them, too.

"Well, if you ask me, if this is what you want, then this can be a good thing." Lula is always a glass half full kind of girl. "Now you can go in a whole new direction in your life. I bet you got skinny white boys lining up around the block to date you! Not that there was anything wrong with officer hottie, it's that marrying the police is just wrong. What did Ranger say about this. I bet he been here to console you. You need to tell me all the details."

"Ranger didn't have any part of this. He went to Miami two weeks ago, and I haven't heard from him since."

"Okay, well, when you coming back to work? I would go out and pick up skips on my own, but I wouldn't want to deprive you of your share of the fun." Lula and I both knew she was full of baloney. Together we're the Lucy and Ethel of bond enforcement. By herself, Lula wouldn't last a day. This is one of the reasons why we're such good friends.

"I'll be back on Monday." I told her, but I wasn't looking forward to it.


	4. Chapter 4 - A fresh Start?

**_This is JE's world. The mistakes are mine. I'll be over at the Tasty Pastry picking up donuts if you need me..._**

On Tuesday, Joyce Barnhardt stopped by the bonds office give me a little advice. "You should have married him," she told me. "You probably could have gotten that cute little house in the divorce. Besides, There hasn't been a really good fight since you divorced Dickie." Her eyes rolled up and she dropped to the floor.

"Will you look at that." Lula said, "I was just walking by her on my way to go file some shit, and my stun gun just jumped out of my bag and tagged her." Did I happen to mention that I really like Lula?

On Wednesday, I stopped at Giovichinni's for lunch. I was standing in line to pay when Joe's Grandma Bella walked in the door. She pointed her finger at me and said, "You devil woman! You think you too good for my Joseph? I'm gonna fix you good. I give you the eye!"

I rolled my eyes at her. "You know you're not supposed to do that. If you keep giving people the eye, I'm gonna tell on you. Besides, I thought you'd be happy. Now Joe can find a nice woman to settle down and raise little Italian babies with."

"I'm still gonna give you the eye. Everybody stand back, this is gonna be a good one." By the time Bella finished her warning, the front of the store was empty. No one can say for sure if Bella's curses work, but most people would rather play it safe. Bella pulled down her lower eyelid and concentrated on me. "You break my poor Joseph's heart. Now you never gonna find a new man!" When she walked back to the Deli counter, Gina Giovichinni ran back to the cash register.

"Wow, she really has it in for you" She said as she rang up my order. "I thought for sure that since you and Joe broke up, that she would leave you alone."

"You know, in a sick and twisted kind of way, I'll probably miss all the curses once she forgets about me." I told her as I paid. "At least this time she didn't shoot at me." And with that happy thought, I walked out the door.

By Thursday, i was ready to beat myself to death with my Maglite. Every woman I picked up either wanted to know what I did wrong with Morelli, or wanted me to give him their phone number so that they could console him. Every man I picked up wanted to show me how I could improve my love life. Gross! As if I would ever want to take one of those losers home!

Friday night dinner with my mother wasn't any better. "How could you do this?" she cried. "Does Dottie Lucarelli's daughter turn down her boyfriend's proposal? You're gonna be one of those crazy old cat ladies! All I ever wanted was for you to be settled down with a good man to raise a nice family. Is that too much to ask?"

"Mom, I don't even know if I want to have children. I have enough problems taking care of me and Rex sometimes." This was greeted by dead silence.

My mom knocked back the rest of her wine and looked towards the kitchen where she had the whiskey stored. "What do you mean, 'you don't know if you want children'? How could you not want children? Look at how happy your sister is with her girls."

We sat there in silence and thought about my sister's kids. I didn't want to point out to my mother that Val's girls might not be the best examples to use there. Mary Alice thinks she's a horse, so who are we kidding?

Grandma walked me and my leftovers out to my car. "I never did think you'd be happy with that macho Italian stuff. He was hot, though. Keep your chin up and start looking for another hottie, or your mother will be setting you up with that used car salesman she met last week. She's been ironing nonstop ever since Mrs. Morelli called her last Saturday."

I was beat by the time I made it back to my apartment. I opened my door and called out a greeting to my hamster, Rex. He maynot be the best room mate a girl could ask for, but he hasn't let me down yet. I put my bag of leftovers in the fridge and headed out to the living room. I was so tired, that I didn't notice Ranger sitting on my couch until I was almost on top of him. "Babe" he said with his almost smile in a way that I took to mean, "You need to pay attention to your surroundings". Glad to see someone was their usual cheerful self.

"Don't you start on me, too!" I told him. "I'm too tired to listen to any more advice. And besides, you've been totally out of touch for 3 weeks!"

"I'm not here to offer you any advice. I'll help you with the tiredness if you want, but I came to tell you that I need a date this weekend."

Unh! Mental head slap. I lay awake sometimes at night, thinking about how Ranger would help me with my tiredness. Ranger is amazingly good at curing tiredness. I was worried about him needing a date, though. I've been his date before, and got poisoned for my trouble.

"I'm pretty sure you won't get poisoned this time." See, he can read my mind, too. "And I highly doubt we'll end up at the funeral home. The daughter of a client is in town and I need a female to help with light bodyguard detail. I'll pick you up tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. Wear something to go to the beach." He stood and laid a light kiss on my lips. "Call me if you want help with that tiredness." and he left.

**A/N - I'll be adding chapters rapidly for a while... up to Chapter 14 on a different site... let me know what you think, I love to read the reviews! :-)**


	5. Chapter 5 A day at the beach

**_This is JE's world, I just hitched a ride in Lula's Firebird... Let me know what you think so far... Mistakes are bad, but always mine..._**

Oh my god. I'm going to the beach with Batman! Sure it's not a date, but come on. How many chances do you get to see the caped crusader in casual wear? I set my alarm for 7:30 so that I had plenty of time to shower and get dressed. Bikini, cute shorts, stretchy shirt, and Strappy sandals were in order. Sunscreen, ipod, Towel, and loaded gun in my bag, since I know he's going to check. A couple of extra swipes of mascara and I was ready to go.

at 9:00, Ranger knocked once on my door and let himself in. I almost passed out, he looked so good. Black cargo shorts, black polo top, and black birkenstocks. "I guess you're not planning on kicking down any doors today." I said.

"Babe" Ranger took my bag. He was probably weighing it to make sure I had my gun.

"So, what's the plan for today?" I asked. He had only said we were going to the beach. For a small state, New Jersey has a lot of beaches. Everything from boardwalks to nude beaches can be found here.

"We'll be meeting our subject in Point Pleasant. She is the daughter of a good client, and doesn't come out to New Jersey often. He really only wants to make sure she's not alone this weekend. There isn't a high threat." I love Point Pleasant. Beaches, bars, and boardwalks, what more can you ask for?

Ranger pulled me to him and tucked a lock of my hair behind my ear. "Looking good, babe. Ready to spend the day at the beach?" In that moment, he could have easily talked me into staying home, but we had a job to do.

I really do love the beach. It was a beautiful sunny day by the time we parked in the lot by Jenkinson's Arcade. We made our way to the boardwalk where we met our client. Ranger made the introductions, "Stephanie, I'd like you to meet Celia. Celia, this is Stephanie Plum." Celia was a knockout. Tall, with long brown hair and brown eyes, she was getting plenty of attention from the men who were walking by.

"It's so nice to meet you." I told her as I shook her hand. "I hope you enjoy the beach as much as I do. I don't know if you've been here before, but we should probably pick a spot before the beach gets too crowded." Way to be professional, Steph. You're babbling like an idiot, and you've only just met her. There was something about her, though. I just couldn't put my finger on it.

Celia smiled brilliantly, and set me at ease. "I haven't been here in ages. Let's put our stuff down and wander around the boardwalk."

We had a great day. We walked the boardwalk, played games in the arcade, and ate fried food that's really bad for you. I think my favorite part of the day was when we finally laid out on the sand. The image of Ranger without a shirt on the beach is now burned into my mind. Even though we were supposed to be working, I had more fun than I've had in weeks, and Ranger seemed mostly laid back for the first time ever.

We had dinner at the Shrimp Box, where we could sit out by the boats. Celia asked me if I wanted to go shopping tomorrow. That's an easy one. We decided that Ranger would take us to the Quakerbridge Mall the next day at 11:00. This was turning out to be the easiest job I've ever done.

By the time we walked Celia to her car, I was exhausted. We climbed back into Ranger's Porsche 911, and headed toward home. "Thank you for bringing me here today." I told Ranger on a huge yawn, and fell asleep. I was so out of it, I didn't feel Ranger's fingers on my cheek, or hear his soft answer of, "Anytime".

I woke up when Ranger parked by my apartment. We walked upstairs in a comfortable silence. I unlocked the door and we walked in. I set my bag on the couch and turned into Ranger's arms. He kissed me, and suddenly I wasn't tired anymore. His hands were on my waist under my shirt, and the skin on skin contact made me shiver. We were moving towards my bedroom, when the phone rang.

"Let the machine get it." Ranger said.

My machine clicked on, and the voice of my best friend, Mary Lou came on. "Stephanie, pick up the phone. I know you're there. Look, just because Morelli took another girl to Pino's, there's no reason to lock yourself in again. Call me."

Ice water couldn't have been more effective. I laid my head on Ranger's chest, and he held me. Ranger lifted my chin and saw the sadness in my eyes. "Babe" he said, gently.

I took a deep breath and blew it out. "I miss him, but not like you think. I'm glad that he's moving on, and sad that we couldn't make it work. It's just sad because there could never have been a happy ending for me and Joe."

Ranger tucked one of my curls behind my ear, gave me one of his almost smiles and asked, "Do you want me to stay?"

Boy, there were about a hundred different ways I could answer that. I decided to tell him the truth. "Yes, I want you to stay, but I don't know if I'm the best company right now. You don't need to handle my emotional baggage."

He kissed me on the forehead. "If you want me to stay, I'll stay. Go get ready for bed. I need to make a couple of phone calls and I'll be right in."


	6. Chapter 6 - A hard day of shopping

**_Again, all mistakes are mine. This is JE's world, I'm just applying for a job at the personal products plant..._**

I woke up Sunday morning to the scent of Bulgari and Ranger lingering on my sheets. I had a moment of panic until I remembered what had happened last night. I had taken a quick shower, gotten into my tank top and boy shorts and laid down on the bed. Ranger went into my bathroom and I fell asleep while the shower was running. Smooth, that's me.

I headed towards the kitchen for some much needed coffee, and was shocked to see him sitting at my kitchen table drinking coffee and working on a laptop. I had honestly expected him to escape while I was still asleep. "Morning." I muttered. "DId my kitchen grow a laptop overnight?"

"Babe." Ranger said and handed me a cup of coffee. "I got up early and ran over to Rangeman. Breakfast is on the counter."

I walked over to the counter and saw that he had brought muffins from Rangeman. As far as breakfast goes, Ella's muffins were excellent, but they were altogether too healthy. I took one that was probably filled with carrots and bran, and turned to Ranger. "Thank you for the muffin, but there's no processed sugar or fat in this. That's just not right."

Ranger walked to me, took the plate of muffins and set them on the table. He put his arms around me and asked, "Was there something you wanted, instead?" Before I could even think of an answer, he kissed me. When his tongue touched mine, the heat speared straight to my doodah, and I lost all coherent thought. Ranger picked me up and set me back down on the counter, never breaking the kiss. He ran his hands from my knees, up my thighs, and under my shirt. He trailed kisses from my jaw to my neck and collarbone. He kissed me once through the thin cotton of my shirt, and looked at me, his eyes black with desire. "Tell me you want this." He said softly.

"Yes." I replied with a thick voice. I couldn't imagine him leaving me right now. He kissed me through my shirt again, then worked his way lower.

Ranger has an excellent body. I love the feel of his hard muscles under soft skin. Looking down at him kissing my belly on his slow trail south is probably the sexiest thing I have ever seen. He slid my panties down my legs and continued until I swore I saw stars.

By the time Ranger worked his way back to my neck, I was completely naked, and he was still fully clothed. I slid his shirt up his chest and over his head. We kissed long and deep. "Tell me you want me." he said to me.

I ran my hand through his hair and looked him in the eyes. "I want you, Ranger." I whispered. Ranger picked me up off of the counter, and I wrapped my legs around him. He carried me into the bedroom and laid me down on the bed.

Ranger is magic in the bedroom. He knows when to go fast, when to go slow, and exactly what buttons to push. To say that we had a phenomenal morning just wouldn't do it justice.

By the time we were dressed and back in the kitchen, we only had a few minutes before we had to leave to meet Celia. Ranger was packing up his laptop, and I was contemplating the plate of muffins, when he looked at me with a megawatt smile. "Look in the microwave, babe."

I opened the microwave, and sitting inside was a trademark Tasty Pastry bag. I snatched it up and looked inside. Boston Creme goodness, Yay!

When we got to the mall, Celia was standing at the entrance to Macy's with another woman. "Hi, guys," she beamed at us. "I hope you don't mind if my cousin Maria comes with us." Ranger kind of rolled his eyes, but I assumed that it was because he was surrounded by girls at the mall.

Celia looked me over. "You look really happy. You must have had a good morning."

I tried not to blush, but I don't think it worked. "I had donuts for breakfast. Boston Creme donuts always put me in a good mood." I don't think she bought it.

"Those must have been some donuts." she said with a knowing smile.

Going to the mall can be a whole day experience. We started in Macy's and decided to stay on the upper level first. We tried on shoes, looked at purses, and got Lattes. When we got to the lower level, the first store we passed was Victoria's Secret. Both Celia and Maria looked at Ranger and busted out laughing. "Can you imagine bringing him in there?" Celia said to me.

Smiling along with them, I said, "We'd never get him out alive." This brought on more laughter from Celia and Maria. When the girls went into Wet Seal, Ranger pulled me to the side. "Want to negotiate a trip to Victoria's Secret? I'll take you in if you'll model whatever I pick out." Wow. My eyes were crossed just thinking about it. I was glad the girls weren't there to see my reaction.

By the time we made it back to Macy's, it was late in the afternoon. Celia and Maria left to go to their family dinner. I considered it a job well done that I resisted the temptation to buy the gorgeous red shoes that I first tried on. We had an uneventful drive home. When we got to my apartment, Ranger got a text message. He Looked at his phone, and gave me a quick kiss. "See you later, babe." and he was gone.

I closed my door and leaned against it. This had to have been one of the strangest weekends I've had in a long time. Even though we were working, I think he may have had fun. I know I did.


	7. Chapter 7 - Business as usual

**_This is my version of JE's world, complete with my mistakes... I'm hanging with Mooner &amp; Dougie today._**

Monday morning was back to business as usual in the bonds office. Connie was at her desk and Lula was nowhere to be seen. I strolled in and put a Tasty Pastry box on the desk. "Anything new come in this weekend?" I asked as I selected a Boston Creme from the box. I thought of the one Ranger gave me yesterday, and couldn't hide my smile.

"There's only a few for you." Connie told me. "And I've seen that look on your face before. What did you do this weekend?"

"I worked with Ranger this weekend. We discussed the merits of frosting versus bran as a breakfast staple." I picked up the stack of folders she had on her desk and rifled through the list.

Just then, Lula came running through the door. She was only a half an hour late for work, so in Lula terms, she was actually early. "What'd I miss?" She asked as she browsed through the donuts.

"Stephanie and Ranger had a conversation about donuts." Connie ratted me out. She even used the little "air quotes".

"Get out! Girl, you're conna have to give us all the details about this _conversation_. We may need to know everything you two _talked_ about." Nope, Lula didn't miss the innuendo. "Not that we can't guess. You're looking much better than you did when you left here on Friday. I was a little worried you were gonna go out and look for someone to run over."

"Last week was a long and horrible week." I told her. "We're starting fresh today, and it helps to have a positive attitude. We're gonna go out there and get us some bad guys, and we're going to start with this one." I opened the first folder. "Morty Grabble. This one shouldn't be too hard. He was arrested for shoplifting at the liquor store. He didn't have a gun, and he didn't try to run anyone over."

Morty was also 83 years old and lived in the Burg. The Chambersburg section of Trenton is a small community where everyone knew everyone, and they all knew what you were doing. This was both good and bad. It was good because I knew lots of people to get information from. It was bad, because if anything went wrong, my mother would hear about it instantly.

"Maybe we should stop by your mother's house and ask your granny if she knows him." Lula knew exactly where I was headed. "Besides, your mother usually has coffee cake set out in the morning. It would be a shame to waste it."

It would be pointless to argue. She was right about my grandma knowing everything about him. She was also right about the coffee cake.

We headed out to my 1991 silver POS Toyota Corolla. My car is horrible for the image of a take charge kind of bounty hunter. Unfortunately my skill level and my budget decided that this was the image I could afford.

My parents have lived in the same house for as long as I've been alive. Some things will never change, and in fact I didn't want them to. The house will always be painted brown and yellow, my father's cab will always be home by 5:30, and any time I pull up to the curb, my mother and grandmother will always be standing at the door waiting for me, pulled there by some kind of maternal radar. Today was no different, and that was a good thing.

"Look who's come to visit." my grandmother called out as we got out of the car. "Come on in, we have fresh coffee cake."

Lula and I walked into the kitchen and sat at the table where I did all my homework as a child. "We really can't stay long," I told them. "Lula and I just wanted to know if you knew anything about Morty Grabble."

"Sure I know Morty. He's a pip." Grandma seemed to perk up at the idea of getting some good gossip. "He's a member of the Elks lodge. There's only one reason you could be asking about him. What did he do?"

There was no way I was going to get around telling her. "He was caught shoplifting at the liquor store. It's no big deal, we just have to take him to the court to get rebonded."

"Sure. I know that." grandma said. "But you're not going to get him in the morning. He does his errands in the morning. Your best bet is to get him at lunch. He always has lunch at the Diner over on Broad. I have an idea. You can take me over to Giovichinni's to pick up some lunch meat, then I'll go with you to the diner."

"No, that's ok." Panic started to set in. Things had a way of going horribly wrong when grandma came with me. "I wouldn't want to interrupt your day. Besides, we have to get going, plenty of other things we have to do."

"Nonsense. I'll just be a minute. I have to get my purse." And we were sunk. There was no changing grandma's mind once she decided on something. "Afterwards, you can just drop me off at the beauty parlor. I have an appointment for a set. I have to go to a viewing tonight, and I want to look nice."

When grandma left the kitchen, my mother gave me the look. "I'm holding you responsible for her. I don't want to hear from anybody that your grandmother shot some nice old man in the diner." I'd love to say that there was no chance of that happening, but I could never be sure.

"I love it when your granny comes with us." Lula told me with a smile. "She's a hoot. I hope I'm just like her when I get all old." To be honest, there are times when I'd like to be like grandma when I get older. She does what she wants, and says what she thinks.

We all piled into my Corolla, and went to run grandma's errands. By 11:00 we were done and parked at the diner. "I'm starving." Lula announced. "I bet they got some good home cooked food in there. I bet if we went in and had a little bite to eat, by the time we were done, Grabble will be coming in for lunch and we could just snatch him up."

I put my foot down. "No, we're not going in there to eat. We're just going to wait out here and get him before he goes in the restaurant. That way we won't cause a scene. We can stop at Cluck in a Bucket when we're done."

"I bet they have some really good pie in there." Grandma said. "I sure could go for a nice slice of blueberry pie if they had some. You never know. This could be the last time I get to enjoy blueberry pie."

15 minutes later, we were sitting in a booth. I had a tuna salad, Grandma got her slice of blueberry pie, and Lula had the daily special, which was a plate of fried chicken with mashed potatoes and cole slaw. We had just started eating when Morty walked in. I shoveled my lunch in at the speed of light, put some money on the table and told grandma and Lula to hurry up.

I stood up and walked over to Morty's table. Morty had just been served the lunch special. He looked up at my approach. "Excuse me, Mr. Grabble. My name is Stephanie Plum, and I couldn't help but notice you."

Morty narrowed his eyes at me. "I know who you are. I saw your picture in the newspaper when the funeral home burned down. You're that bounty hunter chickie." He started to look around. "I bet you're here to try and bring me back to the pokey. Well, I'm not going. I have better things to do. I'm old, and I don't have time to go to jail!"

By this time, we were starting to draw attention. "Mr. Grabble, please. I'm only..." That was as far as I got when I was hit in the forehead with some mashed potatoes. I wiped some of the gravy out of my eye. "Mr. Grabble, I'm really not in the mood..." Splat. I now had coleslaw running down my shirt.

"Hey!" Grandma stood up at our booth. "You can't do that to my Grand daughter. She's a bounty hunter, and she's gonna take you to the can. Morty grabbed a drumstick and let it fly. It hit grandma square in the chest and knocked her back into her seat.

"That's enough!" I yelled while getting my cuffs from my back pocket. Morty lobbed another forkful of mashed potatoes right at me. The next thing I knew, I was hit in the back of the head by a chunk of blueberry pie. I turned around just in time to see grandma shrug and say, "oops."

When I turned back around, Morty was out of his booth and headed for the door. I grabbed him, and in the struggle, we slid to the floor. We were wrestling in the mashed potatoes when I noticed a pair of cop shoes stopped in front of me. I looked up and saw Eddie Gazarra smiling down at me. Eddie is married to my cousin Shirley the whiner. He once told me that they had a pool at the office to see who would get to go on calls for me. "You never disappoint." Eddie told me. "As soon as the call came out, I knew it had your name all over it."

Eddie took Morty in his cruiser, and we followed them to the police station. As soon as I had my body receipt, I dropped grandma off at the beauty parlor. I took Lula back to the bonds office and went in to turn in my receipt. I wanted to get my check so I could go home and take a shower. Everything was starting to dry in a sticky mess.

While Connie was handing me my check, I felt the change in the air pressure. All the hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and I knew that Ranger had stepped into the office. He put his hand on my waist, leaned in and said, "You smell great, but blue is not a good color for your hair." I was not going to dignify that with an answer. He leaned past me, and took his files from Connie. "I need to talk to you, babe." and he walked out the door.

I dropped my head and took a deep breath to get over the rush. "Girl, you better get moving. Maybe he wants to discuss donuts or something." Lula winked at me and fanned herself with a file, in case I missed her meaning. A quick "unh" and I was out the door.

Ranger waited for me by the side of the building. When I walked around the corner, he smiled and picked a piece of coleslaw out of my cleavage. "Looks like they have the fried chicken special at the diner today."

"How come you always show up when I'm covered in mashed potatoes?" I wanted to know.

Ranger hit me with his almost smile. "Tank heard the call go out over the police scanner about a food fight at the diner. I noticed your car was parked there, and figured you were in the middle of it."

Time for another mental head slap. "Did you really want to talk to me, or did you just want a good laugh?"

"Babe" he said and wiped some mashed potatoes off my cheek. "I wanted to have you look over a security system with me tonight. Why don't you go home and get cleaned up. We'll have dinner on 7, then head out." He kissed me thoroughly and smiled. "You taste good, too."


	8. Chapter 8 - three choices

**_This is JE's world. The mistakes are mine. I'm over at the courthouse getting bonded out..._**

I love spending time in Ranger's apartment. Ella, the woman who cooks and cleans here, decorated the apartment in warm masculine earth tones. If I thought for a minute that Ella would go for it, I'd ask her to adopt me. I had fobbed my way into the parking garage and up to the apartment at 6:00. Ranger walked in right behind me.

"Babe" he said as he kissed me. "Ella already brought dinner up. Are you hungry?" Ella is an excellent cook, even if everything is good for you. Of course I was hungry.

Dinner was cedar plank grilled salmon, with wild rice and grilled vegetables. When I took my first bite, my eyes glazed over and I moaned out loud. Ranger stopped eating and watched me for a minute. I'm pretty sure I flushed bright red. "Sorry. This is probably the best fish I've ever eaten."

"Babe." He smiled and picked his fork back up.

After dinner was finished, we headed to Ranger's office. He laid out a set of photos for me to look over. "The house belongs to a mid level TV executive and his family. They will be entertaining frequently, and want to be certain that any guests are able to maintain their privacy while still being secure. They just purchased the house and aren't moving in until renovations are done, so we have no problem getting in and looking around."

Wow. The house was beautiful. I wouldn't mind having a screening room like that when I grow up. I took one last look at the photos and then we headed out to Ranger's Turbo.

The house was even more spectacular in person. A big, beautiful colonial with wide porches outside and hardwood floors inside, it sat on 11 acres of well landscaped lawns. I didn't know that there was this much grass anyplace in Trenton that wasn't a park or a high school football field.

Ranger showed me around the house and made notes while I pointed out what I would or wouldn't do with the security. When we walked into the master bedroom, I couldn't help but close my eyes and imagine what it would look like once it was finished. My thought process got away from me when I made it to the king sized four poster bed in dark walnut with gauzy white drapes. In my head, Ranger was laying on the bed waiting for me. I bit my lip and sighed.

When I opened my eyes, Ranger was looking at me with one eyebrow raised. "Do you need a minute, babe?" If he only knew what I was thinking, I'd be in serious trouble.

We finished our walkthrough of the house and headed back outside. It was a warm summer night, and Ranger took my hand and led me around the grounds. When we got to the gazebo, he took me in his arms and kissed me. Ranger's scent wrapped around me, and I leaned into him. Ranger broke the kiss and leaned his forehead against mine. "We need to leave here." He said as he traced my lips with his fingers.

The return trip to Rangeman seemed to be both too long and not long enough. I used the time on the drive back to think about what we were doing. Ranger once told me that he loved me in his own way, but that his kind of love didn't come with a ring attached. Did I want to settle for what he thought he could give me?

When we parked in the garage, Ranger got out of the car and came around to my side. "Do you want to spend the night?" He took my hand and helped me out of the car. He dropped small kisses on my neck. "I can make it worth your while."

I stifled a yawn. "Sorry, I have to go home. What kind of role model would I be to Rex if I stayed out all night? Besides, Lula is expecting me to pick her up from the bonds office early so that we could get a jump start on some of my skips."

He gives me another bone melting kiss and stepped back. "See you later, babe." and walked into the building.

The next morning, I called my best friend, Mary Lou, and made plans for lunch. Mary Lou is always ready to lend a hand in whatever caper I'm planning, as long as it gets her away from her kids for a few hours. Mary Lou loves her kids, but the insanity level in her house goes way up during summer vacation.

After I talked to Mary Lou, I went to the bonds office. Connie handed me my stack of skips. "Let's see, repeat, repeat, repeat, and repeat. Doesn't anybody new want to give crime a chance?"

Lula looked up from the couch where she was reading the latest copy of Star Magazine. "Good thing you ain't a ho," she said with a smile, "Otherwise you'd go broke with repeat customer discounts."

"I guess that's something to be grateful for." I grinned back at Lula. "Why don't we go grab a couple of these guys?"

Lula wasted no time getting up and heading for the door. "Sounds good, but I'm driving today. I need my tunes on a day like today, and your radio is awful."

"Lula, my whole car is awful. If I could keep a car longer than a month without it blowing up or catching fire, I'd probably be able to afford one with a working sound system."

"Hunh, you're probably right about that" Lula said as we climbed into her car. She turned her stereo up until I felt like my fillings were going to fall out, and we motored out of the bonds lot.

After a successful morning's work, I dropped Lula back at the bonds office and headed over to Mary Lou's. "Please tell me you need to do something dangerous tonight. I could use the time in jail if we get arrested." Mary Lou yelled at me over the screaming of her kids. If I had kids like hers, I'd be in a drug induced stupor most of the time.

"Sorry, nothing like that." I told her as I grabbed my first slice of pizza. "I just needed some girl time."

Mary Lou was sharper than that. "Ok, what's really going on? I know you didn't come to Chez Stankovic for the ambiance. You also don't look like you're pining for Morelli any more, so what gives?"

I told her about my weekend working with Ranger. I told her everything up to last night at the client's house. "I don't know what to think." I told her. "He's told me that he loves me, 'in his own way', but what does that even mean? He said his love doesn't come with a ring attached, but I know it's more than blowing off steam between us. We spent the entire weekend together without any major catastrophe. He even wanted me to spend last night at his place." The worst part is that every time I think about my future, Ranger is in it. If I was honest with myself, he's been a part of my future even before he got shot in my apartment.

Mary Lou listened to me, then cut right through the drama. "I guess you have three choices. You can either stop seeing him altogether, you can keep things the way they are, or you can actually talk to him, and see if there's something more there."

The thing about talking to your best friend is that she understands what you're thinking. Mary Lou and I know each other inside and out. I have no doubt she wants what's best for me, and I owed it to her to be honest. "I can't stop seeing him." I told her. "That's just out of the question. You know as well as I do, that I'm just going to chicken out on the whole relationship discussion. Morelli and I were engaged without ever having a real relationship discussion."

Mary Lou hugged me. "In that case, call me when you need to get drunk. If he makes you unhappy, I'll kick his ass." That finally got the laugh she was looking for. We finished lunch, and I went back to work feeling better for having someone I could talk to about this.


	9. Chapter 9 - Dinner with mom

**_This is JE's world. The mistakes are mine. I'm heading down to the beach..._**

I was heading back to my apartment at the end of another long week, when my phone rang. "Boy, do I have a pip of a story for you." my grandma told me when I answered. "I don't want your mother to hear it, because she'll get upset. Why don't you come to dinner, and then you can take me to Stiva's. I'll tell you about it on the way there." I couldn't imagine what she had to tell me,but at least I got to mooch dinner first.

My mother is an excellent cook. The only problem with eating at my parents house is that if you are not at the table at 6:00 exactly, you are responsible for ruining dinner. I showed up 15 minutes early, so I could help set the table.

The table was already set when I walked through the door. I had a sinking feeling when I noticed that there were five places set at the table. I started inching towards the door when my mother walked out of the kitchen. "Don't even think about leaving if you ever want to see another pineapple upside down cake." I knew right then that my mother was trying to set me up again.

There was a knock at the door. I couldn't figure out what was wrong with the man standing there, but since he obviously agreed to let my mother try to set us up, there had to be something. "Steve Selnak, from Selnak's Sports Cars. You must be Stephanie. Your mother's description didn't do you justice." His smile said, "you can trust me," but the fact that my mother once set me up with a serial killer made me hesitate.

We all sat down at the table to eat. "So, how did you meet my mother?" I asked, trying to find out what was wrong with him.

"Your grandmother came to the lot looking for a new car. There were a couple of cars that she wanted to take for a test drive, but she told me she left her driver's license at home." He winked at my grandma. "She has some excellent taste in cars. She picked out some real nice ones. She said the Impala LT looked like the perfect car for you."

Great, my mother was trying to get me a date, and he was trying to sell me a car.

We finished dinner without incident and I walked Steve to his car. Steve turned to me. "I had a nice time, but I don't think this is going to go anywhere. I mean, c'mon. Steve &amp; Steph? We'd have kids named Sammy and Sally, and live in the suburbs. You're pretty hot, though. Why don't you call me if you need to get your chassis lubed. Next time you need a car, I hope you'll keep me in mind."

As I stood there with my mouth hanging open, he kissed me. He got into his car and drove away while I still stood there, looking shocked. My grandmother walked up next to me and asked, "So how did it go? Did you make another date with him?"

"No, I don't think it's gonna work out between us." I told her. "He's not looking for a long term commitment." Ok, so I fibbed a little, but under the circumstances, it seemed like a good idea.

Grandma went back inside to get her purse. I looked over at my POS Toyota, and thought that I really did need a new car, but I couldn't afford one. Grandma came back outside and we headed out to Stiva's.

Stiva's funeral home is almost a social center for seniors in the Burg. It hasn't been owned by a Stiva in years. Both Stiva and his son have tried to kill me, and I may have had a hand in burning the building down once, but the funeral home will always be known as Stiva's.

As we started towards the funeral home, my grandma turned to me. "I hear Morty Grabble is really steamed with you."

"Why would he be mad at me?" I asked. "All I did was bring him back in. He's the one who missed his court date. He probably would have gotten a fine and a slap on the wrist anyway." I'm used to people being mad at me, but I couldn't figure out what would make him mad at me.

"When I was in the beauty parlor, Loretta told me what happened. Apparently, someone at the Social Security office put a death certificate into the system wrong, and it wound up listing Morty as deceased. Now he's not getting his Social Security checks, and every time he calls there, they won't talk to him, because his file has been closed, if you know what I mean."

"I don't see how this could possibly be my fault." I told my grandma. "It's not like I have anything to do with Social Security."

"Well, no, but he was caught robbing the liquor store because he needed a drink after spending all day trying to talk to the Social Security people." She told me. I can understand that. Any time you have to spend hours talking to bureaucrats, you really should be able to get sauced. "Anyway, he missed his court date because he was on the phone with the social security people again. I heard that the day you arrested him, he actually had an appointment to talk to someone and get everything straightened out. Since you arrested him, he missed his appointment."

Ok, now I felt bad. None of it was my fault, but I understood how hard it is to get an appointment to talk to someone who could actually fix his problem. "I still don't see where any of this has anything to do with me." I told grandma.

"Well, word on the street is that Morty is looking for you. He wants to have a talk with you. You need to watch out, those Elks can be mean."


	10. Chapter 10 - Zombies, every story needs1

**_Once again, this is JE's world, with my mistakes...I just want to try on the Mr. Clucky costume. (you've thought about it too, haven't you?)_**

Saturday is always a half day at the bonds office. By the time I got there, Lula was already at her spot on the couch reading the Star magazine. "That old guy was here earlier." She told me. "He said it was all your fault he's still dead. I don't know what he was talking about, but he sure is mad. You'd think if he was dead, he'd have the sense to go lie down."

"He's not dead, Lula."

"What do you mean, he's not dead?" Lula was starting to look a little panicked. "Does that mean he's one of those zombie things? I bet there's zombie cooties all over the office now. Next thing you know, I'm gonna want to eat your brains. This is worse than the time when I was a vampire. At least vampires don't get all rotted and nasty looking."

"Lula, he's not dead, and he's not a zombie." I had to stop this right here, or she'd drive me crazy with zombie mayhem. "There was a mix up at social security. He'll get it straightened out, because he's still alive."

Lula thought about that a moment. "Hunh. I'd rather be a zombie than deal with those social security people. The only thing worse than dealing with the social security people is dealing with the people at motor vehicles." We all shuddered at that thought.

Since there was nothing for me to do there, I headed home. I figured I could stop along the way for lunch, and then do a little housework once I got home. As I was hitting the drive through of Cluck-in-a-Bucket, my phone rang. "Yo" I said.

"They got anything there that isn't fried?" Ranger asked me.

"They do, but I don't think they're allowed to actually serve it. You want a salad? That doesn't have much fried stuff in it."

"I'll meet you at your place, babe." and he hung up. Ranger is not one for long conversations.

I pulled into the parking lot for my apartment building at the same time as Ranger. He took the lunch bags from me and peeked inside. He almost smiled at the sight of the fried chicken salad.

I unlocked my door and we walked inside. Lying on the floor just inside my door was a note. I picked it up and read it with Ranger looking over my shoulder. Someone had actually taken the time to cut out newspaper letters and glue them onto the paper. This was a first for me. The note, sadly, was not a first. "How would you like to be dead, too?" Ranger looked at me with one eyebrow raised. "Something I should know about?"

"No, just your garden variety crazy old coot." I told him about Morty and his social security problems as I set the table and we sat down to eat lunch.

"If he's making you uncomfortable, you can come stay on 7." The thought of staying at Ranger's made my knees go weak and my stomach get gooey. Still, I wasn't really afraid of Morty, I just needed to talk to him and make him go away.

"No, thank you. He's not scary, just a little goofy. I can imagine that dealing with the social security people would make anyone half crazy. I just need to talk to him."

Ranger stood and pulled me to him. "Let me know if you change your mind." His kiss was hot enough that steam was coming out of the top of my head, and my toes were curled into little balls. If anything could make me change my mind, that would do it. I walked him to the door and he tucked a stray curl behind my ear. "Come have dinner with me tonight. I'll pick you up at 8:00." After I agreed to dinner, he kissed me again.

I'm sure he only meant to kiss me, but by the time we broke the kiss, I was pinned to the door and my legs were wrapped around his waist. Ranger felt so good in all the right places. He leaned his forehead against the door next to me. "Tell me to leave." he said to me as he began to nibble on my ear.

"No." I told him and kissed him again. "I won't let you go." I reached between us and undid the top button of his pants. That was all the encouragement he needed.

I've always said that Ranger is magic in the bedroom. It turns out that he is every bit as good in the living room. I'm thinking of having my front door bronzed to commemorate the occasion.

Ranger left after assuring me that he would be back at 8 to pick me up for dinner. That left me six hours to get ready. I decided that I was going to need a nap.


	11. Chapter 11 - Dinner with Ranger

**_*** WARNING *** Big Takedown Twenty spoiler. Other than that... This is my version of JE's world, complete with my mistakes. I'll be in the kitchen ironing if you need me._**

By 7:30 I was in a mild state of panic. Ranger said he was taking me to dinner, but I had no idea where we were going. We could be going anywhere from dinner on 7, to bowling with the guys. Ok, we probably weren't going bowling, but still, what should I wear? I finally decided on a red, clingy number that I love with black heels and purse. By the time I finished blowing my hair and putting on makeup, it was almost 8:00. I figured if we really were going bowling, Ranger would just have to wait while I changed.

When Ranger walked in the door, my heart stopped. Some guys look like barely trained gorillas in a suit, but not him. Ranger can make anything look good, but he looks sinfully delicious in a black Armani suit with a black shirt and tie. "Babe," he said with his almost smile in place as he looked me over, "You look edible."

We went downstairs and got in his Turbo. Sitting in the close confines of the sports car, I felt surrounded by him. The glow of the dash lights hit him just right. I had to do something to break the tension in the car or I would do something crazy again, like try to jump him. This would not be the first time I had sex with Ranger in the Turbo, but it wasn't a good idea the first time we did it.

Ranger turned onto the Turnpike headed north. "I never asked you where we were going." I said in an attempt to start a conversation.

"We're going to a little restaurant I know in Newark. I think you'll really enjoy the food."

I couldn't help but poke him a little. "This isn't some sort of trick, is it? We're not going to some survivalist place where they serve you twigs and grass?"

That got a grin out of him. "Nope. I try to keep that kind of thing out of my diet as much as possible. Although next time I decide to go camping in some third world country, I'll bring you with me."

"Pass." I said with a smile. "My idea of roughing it is staying somewhere where you have to drive more than 10 miles to get to the mall."

A little less than an hour later we were parked by the restaurant. It looked elegant from the outside.. We walked in the front door and were greeted by a little old woman. Ranger spoke to her in Spanish that was too quick for me to even try to follow. She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. Then she turned to me, took my hand in both of hers and kissed my cheek. She kept hold of my hand as she led us to the table, still speaking to Ranger in Spanish. As I sat at our table, she turned to me again and said, "Welcome to Victor's" in very heavily accented English. She kissed Ranger on the cheek again and walked away.

I reached my hand across the table. "Hi, I'm Stephanie Plum. Who are you, and what have you done with Ranger?"

Ranger took my hand. "You have to remember, I grew up in Newark. I've known her forever. This restaurant has been here ever since the original owners came here from Cuba."

I had a devilish thought. "So, I could ask her about what kind of mischief you got into as a child? I wonder what kind of stories she'd tell me."

That earned me the full on Ranger smile. "First you would have to learn to speak Spanish. Her English is very limited."

Just then, a woman came over and set two plates on the table. "Don't tease her, Carlos, it's not polite." She turned to me and smiled. "Welcome to Victor's. My name is Drina. If there's anything you need, please let me know. If he isn't a gentleman for the rest of the night, I'll tell you what he did to his sisters when he was 6 years old."

I couldn't help but laugh at the thought of a 6 year old Ranger getting into all kinds of trouble. "Thank you, Drina. I'll be sure to keep that in mind." I turned my attention to the plates she had set in front of us. Everything looked amazing and tasted even better.

Ranger explained the different dishes as I dug in. This meal beat the heck out of my mother's pot roast and pineapple upside down cake. I'm sure the happy noises I was making drew some attention, but I was too busy eating to notice. I was glad I was wearing a dress, because having to unbutton the top button on my jeans would have been embarassing. When we finished eating, Drina came back to the table. I assured her that that was quite possibly the best meal I have ever eaten. She beamed at me and told me to make Carlos bring me back anytime I wanted. As we were walked to the door, the old woman at the hostess stand kissed Ranger's and my cheeks again.

Instead of heading home, Ranger drove across the bridge to Bayonne. He took us to Liberty State Park, where you can walk along the shore and look out at the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline. The view was spectacular. Ranger led me to one of the benches, and we sat down.

Ranger turned to me. "I need to talk to you." he started. I didn't have a clue as to what he was about to tell me. "I've had a sort of epiphany. It happened while we were chasing after Sunny. We were riding around the streets of Trenton, and I saw that giraffe. I mean, it was a fucking giraffe in the middle of Trenton. I turned to you, and you just said, 'oh, that's Kevin'. It didn't even surprise you. It got me thinking. I've been in some bad places. I've done things that I won't talk about. It took a giraffe wandering around Trenton for me to realize that even though you don't have as many dark spaces in your life, you're stronger than you look. The next time you see something crazy like that, I want to be the first person you think of to call. I know I've told you that I don't do relationships, but it seems like we've already started one without either of us noticing."

I was stunned. Of all the things he could have told me, this was the furthest from my mind. Before I could say anything, Ranger continued. "I've also told you that my love doesn't come with a ring attached. Right now it still doesn't, but when I look at how far we've come already, I can't say that we'll never get there. If we do this, I want to be clear. I won't share you with anyone else the way Morelli did. I want to give us a chance, and I'm willing to do what I need to in order for that to happen."

I think I started to tear up when he said he thought I was stronger than I looked. Wow. This was a lot to take in. I wrapped my arms around him, and kissed him like there was no tomorrow.

When we broke the kiss, Ranger wiped a tear off my cheek. "Babe?" he asked gently.

I told him the only thing I could. "I'd like to try, too."

Ranger held me close and gave me a bone melting kiss. When we came up for air, I smiled at him ad said, "When you say you're willing to do what you need to, does that include going to my parent's for dinner on Friday nights?"

Ranger smiled back. "Babe, going to your parents every week would qualify for combat pay. Every time I go there, your grandma grabs my ass."

That got a laugh out of me. "She probably knew that I wanted to do that myself. You really do have a grabable ass." In the end, we both agreed that once a month was a good start for now.

Ranger put his arm around me and walked me back to the car. This time we headed back towards Trenton. Ranger held my hand while he drove. I used the time in the car to think about all that he said to me. Finally it hit me. "Why didn't you say something to me sooner? What would have happened if I had said yes to Morelli?"

Ranger looked over at me. "You've said yes to Morelli before." Ok, he had me there. Joe and I had actually gone as far as to set a date once upon a time.

"But this time he was serious. He had a ring and everything. Don't get me wrong. I made my choice and you're stuck with me. I just can't help but wonder."

Ranger smiled at the 'stuck with me' comment. "you may find this hard to believe, but I had trouble finding a way to tell you. I'm not exactly one to talk about feelings."

"Ok, you've got a point." I looked out the windshield at the road leading us home. This has truly been one of the most interesting nights I've had in a long time.

We finally made it back to my apartment. As soon as we got inside, I slid his jacket off his arms and smiled up at him. "I've been waiting all night to get you out of these clothes."

Ranger led me towards my bedroom. "Babe, we're on the same page."


	12. Chapter 12 - Busted

_**This is my take on Janet Evanovich's world. The mistakes are mine. I'm headed out to see a Kloughn for some legal advice...**_

Ranger and I spent most of the day together on Sunday, celebrating our 'couple' status. The way I figure it, we probably only had a day or two before the Burg grapevine found out, and I would have to spend the next two or three days fielding phone calls. It turned out that we had much less time than I thought.

By the time I made it to the bonds office Monday morning, I was exhausted in the best possible way. When I walked in the door, Lula was already there, and practically bouncing on the couch. "Girl, I need ALL the details." She said before I could even say good morning.

Connie looked at me with one eyebrow raised. "I don't know what's going on, but when I got here this morning, Lula was here waiting. She won't tell me what's up, and she's been bouncing so much, she's either gonna break the couch or I'm gonna have to stun gun her."

I sat down on the couch next to Lula. "How did you find out?" I asked her.

"I drove over to your apartment on Sunday. They were having a shoe sale at Macy's and I figured you wouldn't want to miss it. When I pulled into your lot, I noticed a certain car parked next to yours, so I went on without you. When I got back from the mall that evening, I went back to your place for details, but the car was still there. I figured you'd be cross-eyed and walking funny this morning, but I got here extra early cause I didn't want to miss a thing."

Connie looked a little slack jawed. "Wait a minute. _His_ car?"

I leaned my head on Lula's zebra print clad shoulder. "Yes. Ranger and I decided to see if we could make a relationship work between us. This weekend was amazing."

Lula looked down at me. "Damn. I thought you two were just banging. How'd this happen?"

I leaned back on the couch. "I admitted to myself that I was in love with Ranger when Scrog shot him in my apartment. I didn't know what to do, because I also loved Morelli. Joe was the ideal boyfriend. My mother loved him, he has a house and a dog, the sex was great, and he loved me. The downside was that he always hated my job, and wanted me to become the little wife and mother. That's not who I am. Ranger is the wizard. there's always been heat and passion with him, but I couldn't see him at my mother's dinner table every week without worrying that one day, he'd disappear."

Connie and Lula sat, enthralled. Finally Connie asked the hard question. "So, what changed?"

I blew out a breath and ran a hand through my hair. "I guess in a way, we both did. When Joe proposed to me, I finally admitted to myself that I didn't want to be the person he wanted me to be. I want someone who will support my decisions, and Joe's never done that. Ranger has always let me be me, and I decided to go for it."

Connie prodded me, "and Ranger?"

I smiled just thinking about Ranger. "Wants me to himself."

Lula fanned herself. "Girl, you won the hot guy lottery. Now tell us, how was it? We know it was good, because it was Ranger, but we need details."

I smiled even wider. "It was indescribable." With that, I got up off the couch and walked over to Connie's desk. There were only two skips for me, and they were both easy to find. I was headed out to my car when my cell phone rang. Darn, it was my mother.

"How would you like to come to dinner tonight?" She asked in a bright voice. "I'm roasting a nice chicken, and I already made a chocolate cake."

She usually wasn't this obvious. "Mom, I am not going over to your house so that you can try to fix me up again."

My mom sighed over the phone. "Why not? This could be the man of your dreams. He could be Mr. Right for all you know. All I'm asking is for you to try. I want to see you happily settled down."

Guilt is a powerful thing. My mother has always used it to her best advantage. "Mom, I'm not looking to meet anyone else. We'll be there for dinner on Friday at 6, but no more blind dates. You have to let me make my own decisions."

As soon as I heard my slip, I prayed my mother missed it. "We'll be there?" Nope, apparently she didn't miss a thing. "Who's we? Why didn't you tell me you had met somebody new? Come over here for lunch and tell me all about him. Just stop at Giovichinni's and pick up some pasta salad for me."

There was no stopping my mom when she got on a roll, so I didn't even try. I just changed direction and headed over to Giovichinni's.

I was in line to pay for the pasta salad when my cell phone rang again. "yo" I said as I answered it.

"You've gone off the grid again." Ranger informed me.

"You've got to be kidding me." I told him. "I'm in the market" I didn't even finish my sentence when a kid came running in the door. "There's a silver Toyota on fire in the parking lot." The kid said excitedly. He probably didn't see many car fires. This was nothing new for me, unfortunately.

"I'm fine." I said to Ranger. "Apparently my car decided to burn without me this time. I'll let you know what happened as soon as I find out."

"Babe" Ranger said and disconnected.

I finished paying for the pasta salad as the wail of fire trucks and police cars got closer. By the time I made it outside, the car was burning merrily and the firemen were hauling out their hoses. I sat on a low retaining wall on the other side of the parking lot to watch the show.

I was shocked when a familiar SUV pulled up and Morelli wandered over to where I was sitting. "What are you doing here?" Iasked him.

"I don't know." He told me. "I heard the call come in over the radio. It felt weird that I didn't get a dozen calls about how my girlfriend torched another car."

"I'm not your girlfriend anymore." I said to him a little sadly.

"I know. It doesn't mean I don't care." Joe looked out over the burning wreckage of my car. "We have a lot of history, Steph. Not all of it was good, and the ending sucked, but I'll always care."

I was on the verge of tears. "Thank you, Joe. I'll always care about you, too." I couldn't stop there. "I hope you're doing ok."

He gave me a rueful smile. "I'm alright. I've been dating another girl. Her name is Gayle, and she teaches elementary school." He paused, but continued on. "I took her to Pino's a few weeks ago." This was awkward, but I sat there and let him continue. "She's really sweet, but she's not you. Sometimes I don't know whether that's good or bad."

I laughed a little. "I'm seeing someone, too." I had to tell him. I didn't want him to find out from anyone else, but the words were surprisingly difficult.

He shot me a look. "Does Ranger know you're seeing someone new?" There went any guilt I may have felt, but I was still going to try to be gentle.

"Actually, it's Ranger that I'm seeing. We decided to date." There, I got it out.

Morelli went absolutely still. "You're dating Ranger? You do know he isn't sane, right? Stephanie, He kills people." I could see he was struggling not to yell, but by this point, so was I. One of the bad parts of our relationship was that we were constantly yelling at each other and fighting. I didn't really want to attract any more attention.

"You don't get to tell me what choices to make anymore." I said to him.

"Like you ever listened to anything I told you." I could almost see steam coming out of his ears. "You know what? You're right. You want to date that maniac, you go right ahead. Right now, not being you is Gayle's best quality."

"You know, for a minute there, I thought you could be civil." I told him. "I'm sorry if you're hurt by this. That wasn't my intention. I didn't want you to hear about this from the grapevine. If you can't handle it, then maybe you should go."

Morelli stopped ranting and seemed to sag a little. "you're right. I'll leave. I really do wish you the best. Part of me just hates losing you to that bastard. The rest of me is ok, though. I'm gonna miss you, cupcake."

I said goodbye, and he left. I was still looking down at the pavement, holding in tears, when a pair of black boots and cargo pants stepped into view. I looked up to see Ranger smiling down at me. "Babe." he said and pulled me up into a hug.


	13. Chapter 13 - Mom time

**_This is my take on Janet Evanovich's Plum world. All mistakes are mine. I don't get anything from it but my own enjoyment. Please leave feedback, I love hearing what you have to say. I'm headed for Atlantic City..._**

I held on to Ranger until I found my balance again. "Been here long?" I asked him.

"Long enough."He tucked my hair behind my ear. "Are you ready to go?"

"What's going to happen to my car?" I asked him.

Ranger almost smiled at me. "It's going to car heaven. I already talked to Carl Costanza and made arrangements to have whatever's left taken away." We started to walk back towards the bonds office. "There was a note on the ground near the car. It said, 'being dead stinks'. I'm going to assume that means your pal Grabble had something to do with this?"

I stopped and turned back to look at the remains of my car. "He torched my car because Social Security messed up his life?" Before, he was only mildly annoying. Now I was getting mad. "That does it. I am going to kick his ass into next week."

Ranger took my hand and tugged me back towards the office. "That's my girl."

When we got back to the office, there was a new black Acura MDX sitting at the curb with a Rangeman explorer idling behind it. I finger waved at Tank sitting behind the wheel. All of Ranger's cars are black, and all are of dubious origins. Ranger led me around the side of the building, and then pressed me up against the wall. We shared a very thorough kiss hello.

Ranger handed me the keys to the car parked out front. "I have to go to Boston for a couple of days. I'm leaving in the morning. Would you like to have dinner on 7 tonight?"

The answer was, of course, oh so very much yes, but I decided to play it cool. "You're not just going out of town to get out of dinner with my family, right?"

Ranger kissed me. "The thought crossed my mind, but I should be back by Thursday."

I put my arms around his neck. "In that case, I'll see you at 6:00." Ranger climbed into the explorer, and he and Tank drove away.

I got into my new car so that I could get to my mother's house. Holy crap, this car is so loaded, it looks like the cockpit for the space shuttle. It's gonna take me forever to figure out how everything works. With my luck, I'll blow it up as soon as I do.

I pulled up in front of my mother's house and grabbed the bag of pasta salad. My mother and grandmother were waiting at the door for me. My grandmother got right to the point. "Boy, that is some car. I bet I know where that one came from."

I walked inside and handed my mother the bag. I kissed grandma on the cheek. "I love you too, grandma."

We headed into the kitchen where my mother had already made sandwiches. She spooned out some pasta salad, and we all sat around the kitchen table to eat.

My mother gave me that look. "Ok, young lady. Who is this new man you're seeing, and doesn't it bother him that you're getting cars from that Ranger?"

"Mom, that Ranger _is_ the man I'm seeing." I kind of just snapped it out. From the shocked look on my mother's face, I can tell I've upset her. "I'm sorry mom, that came out harshly. It's been a long day already, and it's only noon. Ranger and I have decided to date each other. We've had feelings for each other for quite some time, and we're going to see where it goes."

My mother seemed to take a minute to absorb this. "How long has this been going on? Is this why you broke your Joseph's heart?"

"Mom, I want to be clear on this. My reasons for breaking up with Joe have nothing to do with Ranger." Well, not entirely. "Joe wanted things I wasn't ready to give him."

"What kinds of things aren't you ready to give him? A home? A family? You're not getting any younger. You don't want to wait too long."

"I'm not ready for those things. I keep telling you that I'm not ready to settle down and have children. I want to keep working, and I want to be with Ranger. He makes me happy. I want you to be happy for me, too."

Tears started to well up in my mother's eyes. "Stephanie Michelle Plum, all I've ever wanted was for you to be happy."

"I know mom. You just never seem to realize that my happy isn't the same as your happy." Great. Now I'm crying again. "I want you to give him a chance, mom. We're coming to dinner on Friday. Please try to see what I see in him."

My mother reached over and gave me a hug. "I don't know if I'll ever stop thinking you'll be happier if you're married and have children of your own. It's a mom thing. But if this is what you want, I'll try to be happy for you."

"Thanks, mom. That means a lot." It really does. I'm still crying, but I feel better now.

"One last thing, then I'll get you some leftovers to take home." I can't imagine what else there is to say. "If he's going to be your boyfriend, I can't call him Ranger. That's not a proper name."

I almost laughed out loud. If this was all that was left to worry about, then we were going to be fine. "You can call him Carlos."

By the time I left my mother's house, I was wiped out. I wasn't up to catching any skips, and I had to get my mad back before I went to deal with Grabble. I decided the best thing to do was go home and catch a nap before I went to Rangeman.


	14. Chapter 14 - A short goodbye

_**Yet again, this is JE's world. All mistakes are mine. I'm taking Bob to the park today.**_

I fobbed my way into Ranger's apartment just before 6:00. I could hear Ranger on the phone in his office, so I wandered over in that direction. He was sitting at his desk looking over some papers. I leaned against the door jamb and watched him work. Ranger is always in control, and usually serious, but there was something about him sitting behind his desk that made my mouth water.

I call Ranger 'Batman' because he exudes a dark, mysterious air. He is amazingly sexy, and thoroughly masculine. His office suits him to a T. His office is furnished in Black cherry wood bookshelves and a hand carved desk with burgundy leather chairs.

He looked up at me watching him, and he must have liked what he saw. He finished up his call and came over to where I was standing. "You look rested." He said with a smile. "Ella has already been up. We can wither eat now, or wait until later." As he said this, he was pulling me to him and kissing the corner of my mouth.

I walked the rest of the way inside Rangers office, and perched on the corner of his desk. I always wanted to do that, and I loved the way his eyes followed me as I crossed my legs and leaned back. "Did you ever wonder just how clichés became clichés?" I was feeling sexy, and playful. Ranger really brings out the best in me. "And how many of those do you suppose are about a big, strong, desk?" I stroked my hand across the ornate desk.

"Babe" Ranger said as he came to me. I laid my hands on his chest, then slid them up onto his shoulders, around his neck and into his hair. By this time, his eyes were black with desire. I leaned against him and whispered, "How was your day, dear?" My mouth was only the slightest distance from his. He grabbed me by my waist, said, "Getting better by the minute.", closed the gap and kissed me passionately.

I usually love the way Ranger takes charge, but I wanted to show him just how much I would miss him while he was gone. I slid off the desk and more fully into his embrace. As we deepened the kiss, I turned and nudged him back. I peeled his shirt off and ran my hands over his chiseled abs. Then I undid his cargo pants and slid them to the floor. Ranger has a body worth admiring, and I planned on spending time showing him how much I did.

After we finished discovering every cliché we could think of involving office furniture, we went into the dining room to eat dinner. Dinner was a surprisingly domestic affair. We ate Ella's grilled chicken with wild rice and talked about Ranger's upcoming trip to Boston. He assured me that it was routine business. I told him about parts of lunch with my mother, and that she was looking forward to our being there on Friday.

"That reminds me," Ranger said to me as he walked into the kitchen to get the dessert Ella had also left for us. "My mother called yesterday." He came out of the kitchen with two fruit parfait. Leave it to Ella to compromise with a dessert for me that's healthy for Ranger. He seemed to be stretching this out a bit.

"That's nice, what did you two talk about?" I asked as I dug in.

"She would like you to come to dinner next week on Sunday, so that you can meet my family."

I was going to meet his family? This was going to be a great opportunity to learn more about what made Ranger tick. There was no way that I was going to pass this up. "That sounds great. Is it just going to be us and your parents, or will more of the family be there?"

Ranger seemed to pause and think about that for a moment. "It will be at least my Abuela Rosa and my parents. I don't know if my sisters or brother will be there, but I can find out."

"No need." I told him as I scooped up more of the yogurt and pudding dish in front of me. "I'm sure whatever they have planned will be fine." But now that I think about it, Ranger has four sisters and a brother. That's an awful lot of family to meet at once. I decided not to worry about it for now, after all, next sunday is more than a week and a half away. To take my mind off of it, I got a little more parfait on my spoon, and dabbed it on Ranger's jaw. Ranger jerked his head in surprise as I leaned in and licked it off. This caused a wicked glint in Ranger's eye, and a wolf's smile which promised retribution.

Ranger used his spoon to trace the line of my breasts just above my shirt collar. "Are you ready for more, Babe?" He asked as he picked up his mostly untouched parfait glass and led me towards the bedroom.

The next morning came too quickly. I gave Ranger one last goodbye, then he got ready to leave for Boston. I walked him to the door wearing one of his t-shirts. I held on to him for a long minute, and finally said, "Have a safe trip, Ranger. I'll see you when you get home."

Ranger smiled. "I like the way that sounds. You can stay here if you'd like, and I want you to call Tank if you need anything. I figured you would want to talk to Grabble today, so I made arrangements for Hal to follow you over."

I smiled and kissed him one more time. "Thanks, Batman. I'll miss you." With that, he walked out the door.

**A/N - Ok, I'm finally caught up to myself. I won't be posting as insanely quickly as I have been. Thank you all so much for your encouragement! **


	15. Chapter 15 - Grab a little

**_This is JE's world, with my own mistakes. Thanks again for all the positive feedback! I'm going to Pino's for lunch, who's with me?_**

After Ranger left, I took a shower and got ready to face the day. Since it was much earlier than I normally got up, I figured I might as well try to catch Grabble at home. I went down to 5, and found Hal in the lunch room. Hal is a nice guy, but he's built like Steroidasaurous. I stunned him with his own stun gun once. Since it was in the monitored stairwell at Rangeman, the guys in the control room made copies of that one, and gave the disks out as Christmas presents.

We went down to the garage, and Hal got one of the Rangeman SUV's. "Look," I told him, "I have to go talk to a man who's probably about 200 years old. When we get there, just wait by the cars." I didn't think he was going to agree, so I sweetened the deal. "I promise not to go in his house, and you can look menacing." Eventually he agreed and we headed out.

When we pulled up in front of Morty's house, his car was parked in the driveway. I took this as a good sign. Hal and I got out of our vehicles. Hal stood at parade rest by his front fender looking like he was thinking about folding the Explorer in half. I walked up to the little front porch and knocked on the door. From somewhere in the house, I could hear yap of a small dog going nuts at my arrival.

The front door was yanked open, and Morty looked out through the screen door. "Well look who it is. It's the girl who ruined my life! Where's your car? I bet it's still sitting somewhere with all its windows open to get that stink out!" He looked mighty pleased by that thought, but it was the wrong thing to say.

"You fire-bombed my car! There is no smell, because the car doesn't exist anymore!" I was really working up a good rant, now. "Whatever was left of it was taken to the junkyard and scrapped! Why would you do that to me? It's not like I was the one who caused all your problems." I stopped talking because he had turned white as a sheet and was clutching his chest. Without thinking, I yanked open the door and went inside to help him. As I was leading him to the couch so that he could sit down, Hal came racing into the living room with his gun drawn.

I turned to tell Hal that I was ok, and Morty sort of flopped down on the couch. A little Yorkshire Terrier came running into the room and raced between the couch where Morty was slumped and the door where Hal was looking for someone to shoot.

"Don't shoot!" I yelled at Hal. "Everything's ok. I was yelling at him and he started to keel over." I turned back to Morty as he started to stir on his couch. "Mr. Grabble, are you ok?" He opened his eyes, took one look at Hal in his living room and passed out again.

"Could you put your gun away, and go get a glass of water?" I turned to look at Hal. He had already put his gun up and was now trying not to laugh. "What's so funny?" I asked him.

Hal doesn't talk much, so I expected a shrug. What I got instead was, "Usually that only happens to Rangemen." He said and walked into the kitchen, with the little dog following closely at his heels.

Morty started to stir on the couch again. "Mr. Grabble, can you sit up or should I call an ambulance?"

Morty shook his head. "There was a giant, and he was pointing a gun at me."

Before he could pass out yet again, I tried to reassure him. "That's Hal. He's not going to hurt you. He went to get you some water." At least now I could tell Hal that he was the reason Morty passed out.

He started to look around the room. "Where's Steve?" Just as I was about to ask who Steve was, the dog peeked around the corner from the kitchen leading with the little blue ribbon holding the hair out of his eyes. He came trotting out of the kitchen and hopped up on the couch. Morty started making kissing noises at the dog and asking if Steve was ok, so I figured that was one less thing to worry about.

After Morty took a sip of water, he looked at me. "I didn't firebomb your car, I swear. It was only a stinkbomb. I bought it from a couple of kids down on Stark Street. I didn't mean to ruin your car." He looked lost. I was starting to feel bad for him. "This whole mess has made me crazy. All I want to do is get Social Security straightened out."

He went to Stark Street to buy a stink bomb? Some people really don't have a clue. "Mr. Grabble, the people on Stark Street don't sell stink bombs. They concentrate more on the 'bomb' and less on the 'stink'. Promise me you won't go out there again, and I'll see what I can do to help you."

By this time, Morty just looked like a sad, old man. I couldn't help but feel sorry for him. I walked to the other side of the room and called a friend. "Amy? Stephanie Plum. We graduated high school together?" There are times like this when knowing just about everyone in the area is a big help.

I finished up my call and headed back over to Morty. I knelt down in front of him and looked him in the eyes. "I talked to a friend who works at Social Security. She's going to help you with your problem. You have to be there at 10:00, and her name is Amy Moser." I took out one of my business cards and started writing on the back. "After you get finished there, you need to call my insurance agent and try to figure out a way to fix that problem. His name is Brian, and he's a really nice guy." I kept writing on the card. "When you're done with that, you need to go to the police and talk to Eddie Gazarra. Trust me when I tell you that if you go in there and talk to them, it'll be much easier than if they come here and arrest you for Arson. Tell him I don't want to press charges, but I may not get the deciding vote there." By this time, there was no more room on the business card, so I handed it to him. "You have to do this in order to make things right, Mr. Grabble. Believe me when I tell you that I'll know if you don't."

He looked up from the card to me, and then over my shoulder to where Hal was standing by the door. I couldn't see Hal from where I was, but Morty quickly looked down and nodded.

We left Mr. Grabble's house and headed back to the cars. I turned to Hal. "Gee, thanks. That was fun. We'll have to do that again sometime. I'm going over to the bonds office, so you can head back to Rangeman." He just looked at me with one eyebrow raised. I don't understand why I'm the only person in the universe who can't do that. I blew out an exasperated breath. "Ranger told you to follow me all day, didn't he." At least this time I got a smile and a wink. "Fine. We're going to the Tasty Pastry, then we're headed over to the bonds office. You want anything?"

_**A/N - This one was pretty rough. I knew where they were going, but not how they were getting there... I hope you liked it.**_


	16. Chapter 16 - Almost single handedly

_**This is my take on JE's world. All mistakes are mine. I'm going to spend the day filing in the bonds office... Thank you so much for all the feedback, SarRansom, that's exactly what I was going for!**_

I have to admit, having Hal with me all day has proven to be very useful. Once we got to the bonds office, I picked up my files and left the donuts. Since he was going to be with me all day anyway, I left my car in the lot and rode around with him.

Our first skip of the day was Elwood Steiger. Elwood was busted for buying drugs from an undercover narcotics officer. This is not the first time that I picked him up. We pulled up in front of his house and I mentally braced myself for the chase that was about to come.

I pounded on Elwood's door. He must have still been half asleep, because he opened his door without an argument. As soon as he saw me, though, he slammed the door shut in an attempt to bolt. Hal slapped the door with the heel of his hand. The door flew off its hinges and crashed into Steiger, knocking him into the wall and out like a light. I cuffed him, and Hal carried him to the explorer.

We cleaned up the rest of my skips easily. It seems that once most people got a look at Hal, they decided that running wasn't in their best interest.

By the time we got back to the bonds office, I knew I didn't have to worry about next month's rent, and was contemplating grocery shopping. Hal dropped me off at my car, and followed me on my errands and then to my apartment. He cleared my apartment, told me Ram would be on duty, and declined a peanut butter and olive sandwich.

Since I haven't been at home much lately, I cleaned Rex's cage, gave him a new soup can, some extra hamster crunchies, and a grape. Once I finished my maternal obligations, I took my sandwich and a beer and headed to the living room to try to catch a Yankees game.

The ringing of my phone woke me up with a start. I was still on the couch, where I had nodded off during the seventh inning stretch. "yo" I answered.

"Babe." Ranger said in my ear. "You sound like you were sleeping." His voice sounded like silk on the other end on the line. I smiled to myself.

"Yankees were winning, and I spent the whole day keeping the streets of Trenton safe in your absence." I thought back on the day that I had. All in all, it wasn't bad. I had caught all of my skips and fixed Mr. Grabble's problem. I even made it home as clean as I had been when I left in the morning. It was a nice change of pace. "Besides, I need my beauty rest."

Ranger chuckled into the phone. "Babe."

I grinned. It was silly, really. Ranger has been 'In the wind' a lot more than once since I met him, and he was going to be back in two days, but it made me happy in ways I can't define that he called me tonight. I guess it's that new relationship feeling. I haven't had that in a long time, so I plan on enjoying it for as long as I can.

We talked for a while about unimportant things. Ranger assured me that he would most likely be home on Thursday, and parted on a soft "goodnight". Still smiling to myself, I turned off the tv and the lights, brushed my teeth, and went to bed.

On Wednesday morning, after I got up and dressed, I went outside to find Lester leaning against the bumper of the Rangeman SUV parked next to my car. "Good morning, beautiful." He said with a megawatt smile.

I couldn't help but smile back at him. "Good morning, Lester. Are you ready for another day of chasing down bad guys, or are you here to make sure the Acura doesn't get blown up?"

He put his hand over his heart, and pretended to look stricken. "You wound me, my lady. I can assure you that your safety is the only thing that fills my every thought."

I laughed at that. "The fear of Ranger, huh?"

He smiled again. "I'm not going to be the one to let you get hurt while he's away." It was an honest answer. It used to drive me crazy that Ranger was constantly putting bugs in my purse and on my car, but after they saved me from death or serious injury a few times, I've mostly gotten used to them.

Since Lester was going to be with me all day anyway, I decided to let him drive me to the bonds office. Connie was at her desk and Lula was sitting on the couch reading Star magazine. There was only one file on Connie's desk, so I picked it up. "Shoshanna Brown, that'll be an easy one."

Lula looked a little dejected. "You usually use the Turbo to get her. I guess that means you won't need any help today."

I had a great idea. "Since it'll only take me an hour to get her picked up and processed, why don't I do that, then we'll go to Point Pleasant?"

Lula perked right back up. "Now you're talking, girl. You go do that, and I'll go home and change into some beach wear."

Even Connie cheered up at the idea. "Great. I'll forward the office phones to my cell. With any luck, we'll be at the beach by noon." She looked towards the door to Vinnie's office. "You're on your own today. I'll call you if anything comes in." Since she didn't raise her voice at all, I assumed that my cousin had once again bugged her desk.

I got back in the Rangeman SUV and directed Lester towards where Shoshanna lived in the projects. When we got there, I asked him to get out of the vehicle and stand in view of her building. I called Shoshanna on her phone. "S'up?" came her answer.

"Shoshanna, you missed your court date again." I told her.

"Shit, I forgot."

"That's what I figured. I brought you a present, though."

"You bring the Turbo to get me?" She asked.

"Nope, look out your window." I could see the curtain rustle in her second floor apartment.

"Hot Damn! You brought me man candy. Girl, you never disappoint. I'm just gonna put some makeup on, and I'll be right out." She hung up the phone.

I rolled down my window. "You can get back in the car, Lester. She'll be right down."

Lester turned and looked at me. "That's it? She's just gonna come down here and climb into the car so we can take her to jail?" Lester's face was a study in disbelief.

As he got back into the driver's seat, the door to Shoshanna's building flew open, and Shoshanna herself sauntered over to the car and hopped into the back seat. "Hey, girl, who's this fine piece of man you brought with you to visit Shoshanna?" I introduced Lester to Shoshanna, and she spent the rest of the drive to the police station trying to convince him to visit her once she got out of jail.

When I walked out of the station and back to the SUV, Lester was still grinning. "I can't believe it really was that easy." He said while shaking his head.

"Shoshanna's ok," I told him. "She only gets herself arrested when she needs the free dental. Usually I use Ranger's Turbo to lure her out, but today I had you, you fine piece of man." We both laughed at my Shoshanna impersonation.

The rest of the day was spent with the sun on our faces and the refreshing coconut scent of suntan lotion. Lester drove us to the beach, and we had a blast. We had pizza and fries for lunch, and Lester even won me a stuffed horse that I'll give to my niece.

It was getting dark when Lester and I got back to my apartment. Les stopped at Pino's on the way home and we got meatball subs for dinner. We sat at my table with our dinner and a couple of beers. "So how have you been doing, beautiful?" Les asked.

I smiled at him. "Actually, I'm doing really well. The last time I came home covered in unidentifiable substances was a few weeks ago, I don't have any outstanding skips, and I helped an old man after I almost gave him a heart attack. Do you think I'm finally getting better at my job? Or is it just Ranger finally rubbing off on me?"

"Beautiful, you weren't really all that bad at your job." Lester told me seriously. "I think the only thing that's different is the fact that you're no longer surrounded by people who tell you you're bad at your job. Of course, you do have a knack for rolling around in garbage more than most people."

I laughed at that. Maybe he did have a point, though. It gave me something to think about for the rest of the evening once Lester left.


	17. Chapter 17 - Not your ordinary grandma

_**This is JE's world. All mistakes are mine. Thank you all so much for the feedback! I'm going to mooch dinner...**_

I woke up Thursday morning to the scent of Bulgari and the feel of a strong arm wrapped around my waist. "You're going to have to leave soon. My boyfriend is due back today, and he's a total badass."

"Babe." Ranger said and pulled me closer to him. I turned around and gave him a warm kiss hello. Since Ranger wasn't supposed to be back until later, and I had cleaned up my skips yesterday, we decided to spend the morning in.

Later, we sat in the kitchen with coffee and cereal. "Are you really ok with going to my parents for dinner tomorrow?" I asked him. "I can cancel if you want me to."

"Babe." He smiled at me. "I told you that I was willing to do what I needed to do. I've had dinner at your parents' before, so I know what to expect. I'm sure everything will be fine." Man, I hope so.

Shortly afterwards, we left my apartment to face the day. Ranger went to Rangeman, and I headed towards the bonds office.

I looked at the two skips I was given and figured it would be mostly phone work to track them, so I sat down and started looking through the files. Lula and Connie looked at me and then each other. "Ranger must have made it back into town." Lula said to Connie. "She hasn't stopped smiling since she walked in the door."

Connie agreed. "I thought the first clue was the fact that she was three hours late." She turned to me again. "You gotta cut that out, it's creepy. I've never seen you this happy."

I laid my head on the desk. "I can't believe we've only been officially dating since Saturday. I've loved him forever, I just never thought we'd wind up together."

Connie smiled. "No one else did, either. Don't get me wrong, we're happy for you, we just thought you'd cave and marry Morelli. That's what Joe and your mother wanted for you."

I nodded at her. "I don't understand it, either. For the most of my life, my mother warned me to stay away from 'that Morelli boy'. Then she wants to know when Joseph and I are going to settle down and start a family. She already has four granddaughters from Val, isn't that enough?"

Lula sat down next to me. "Maybe she hoped you and officer hottie could give her a grandson or two."

I hate to say it, but Lula is probably right. "That's what we need. More Morelli men in Trenton. This city isn't big enough to handle that much testosterone."

Lula looked incredulous. "Girl, if you think that about Morelli babies, Batman babies would make this town explode."

We all started giggling at that. Soon the Bat baby jokes started. It's good to be silly with the girls sometimes.

Before I knew it, it was Friday afternoon, and I was getting ready for dinner at my parents house. I was nervous all of the sudden. Ranger has had meals at my parents house before. The problem was that my father thought he should be Italian, my mother thought that he should be Morelli, and my grandmother thought that he should be naked. What could possibly go wrong?

At 5:30, Ranger knocked once on my door and let himself in. He was dressed in Rangeman black, and looked as sexy as ever. "Are you ready, babe?"

I let out a sigh. "As ready as I'll ever be." I told him. "I want to apologize in advance for everything that happens tonight. They mean well, they're just crazy."

"Babe." Ranger pulled me to him and kissed me. "It'll be fine, let's roll."

When we stopped in front of my parents house, my mother and my grandmother were waiting at the door. "Stephanie, Carlos, it's so good to see you," My mother said brightly. "Come in, you're right on time."

My father was sitting in his chair in the living room, watching tv. He'll stay there until he's called for dinner. I yelled a greeting at him, and he grunted in return. Ranger handed my mother a bottle of wine and she ushered us into the dining room. Ranger sat at the table, and I helped my mother bring out the dishes. She outdid herself with Caesar salad and stuffed shells. She called dad to the table and we sat down to eat.

Once everyone was served, grandma took a sip of her wine and grinned at Ranger. "I bet you have a big gun." I almost choked on my salad.

"Mother!" my mom snapped and knocked back her wine. "What kind of question is that at the dinner table."

"What?" Grandma said. "I bet he's got a beaut." She turned back to Ranger. "I got a real big one, but it's in my purse upstair... I mean I had to get rid of it because I'm not allowed to keep one in the house." She snuck a look at my mother. Mom was sneaking a look at the kitchen, probably thinking about the whiskey she keeps there.

Ranger gave my grandma an almost smile. I knew for a fact that he had a really big gun, but I was keeping my mouth shut.

My mother turned to Ranger. "So, Carlos, are you a bond enforcement agent like Stephanie?"

Ranger turned to my mother and gave her his megawatt smile. "There is no other bond enforcement agent like Stephanie." I didn't know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. "Actually, I own a security company here in town and a few other cities. We cater to our clients needs, and have seen a decent level of success. I still do bond enforcement, but not as much as I used to."

My mother seemed to be satisfied that if we did wind up getting married, he would be able to support me. My father was mostly interested in his stuffed shells. My grandmother wasn't quite done yet. "So, do you have any single uncles?" She asked Ranger. "I've been thinking about getting a Latin Lover, only I need one younger than me so he can keep up."

My father looked up at my grandmother and I thought I heard him mutter, "The last Latin Lover she had spoke Latin as his first language." My mother was staring longingly at the kitchen.

Ranger just gave her another almost smile and said, "Sorry. All of my uncles are married."

"That's ok." Grandma assured him. "I got a line on a guy down at the senior center. You can't blame a girl for trying." Fortunately, by that time, we were all finished eating, so I helped my mother clear the table. We stayed for pineapple upside down cake, then left with a bag of leftovers.

When we got back to my apartment, Ranger sat down on the couch while I put the bag in the fridge. By the time I made it back into the living room, Ranger had found a boxing match on tv. I took off my shoes and curled up next to him. Ranger put his arm around me and kissed me on the top of my head. "That didn't go too bad," I said. "Nobody passed out, nothing caught fire, and nobody got shot."

"Your grandmother never even tried to grab my ass."

I smiled and laid my head on his chest. "Grandma doesn't poach."

We stayed like that on the couch, watching boxing, and stealing kisses between rounds. After the fight was over, I turned to Ranger. I put my hand on his cheek and looked directly into his dark eyes. I decided to go for broke. "I love you, Ranger."

Ranger's eyes turned to liquid fire, and he held me even tighter. "Say it again, Stephanie. I want to hear my name on your lips, please."

The please always does me in. "I love you, Carlos."

His kiss burned all the way to my soul. "I love you too, Stephanie."


	18. Chapter 18 - Nachtmusic

_**This is my take on JE's world. All mistakes are mine. I'm heading down to the firing range...**_

When we left my apartment on Saturday, I agreed to meet Ranger for dinner on 7. I went to the office and picked up my files. I wa waiting in the police station for a body receipt, when my friend Eddie Gazarra walked in the door.

"Hey, Steph," he greeted me. "If you're going to save the world, why don't you start with your old pal Eddie? We're family, you're supposed to help your family first."

"Eddie, there is no way I'm going to babysit those kids of yours." I've been suckered into that before. "They are little demons. Find some other sucker. Who did I save this time, anyway?"

"I just got back from the courthouse." Eddie informed me. "Your pal Grabble came in and told us what happened. Since he had already talked to your insurance agent and arranged to pay for that junker you used to drive, they gave him a deal where he gets probation and anger management classes."

I smiled at that. "Call it Karma balancing, paying it forward, or doing my good deed for the day, but I'm still not babysitting your kids." I collected my body receipt and turned towards the door.

Eddie laughed at that and walked me towards the door. "I still like you, anyway. Give my best to your parents, and I'll see you around."

That was my last skip for the day, so I turned my body receipts in to Connie and headed home. I fed Rex his hamster crunchies and a baby carrot. There were no messages on my machine, so I took a nap.

Even though we were having dinner on 7, I decided to wear a dress instead of jeans and a stretchy top. I rummaged through my closet until I found a clingy blue dress that matched my eyes, and a great pair of peep toed shoes to match. I blasted my hair, put on an extra layer of mascara, and I was ready to go.

I fobbed my way up to 7, and walked in to find Ranger pouring two glasses of wine in the kitchen. Ranger looked devastatingly handsome in black slacks and a black silk shirt. I was glad I had taken the extra time to get dressed. "Hey" I said.

Ranger turned to me and smiled. "Babe" he said back. He handed me a glass of wine and leaned in for a kiss. "I have a surprise for you" he told me as he led me to the front door. Usually when a guy says that to you, they drag you to the bedroom, but Ranger is not your ordinary guy.

I was surprised when we got to the stairwell and started heading up. I know Rangeman is only 7 stories high. I've never actually climbed the stairs to Ranger's apartment, but I assumed the staircase ended there. He opened the door for me, and I walked outside into the night air for yet another shock from Ranger. There was a beautifully planted and obviously well maintained rooftop garden. Low boxes filled with fruits and vegetables, a garden cafe table with two chairs, and boardwalk style walkways were surrounded by fairy lights everywhere. There must have been speakers somewhere, because there was music playing softly in the background. I had no idea what the piece was, but the rise and fall of flutes and violins made me think of water flowing through and around the plants. "This is beautiful." I told him honestly. "I had no idea this was up here."

Ranger wrapped his arms around my waist and drew me into his chest. "Ella's husband Luis likes to garden. He's been building this for years. I'm glad you like it." He led me to the table where dinner had already been set up. On the table there was a baked Brie with fruits and crackers. As Ranger served the main course of Chateaubriand, the music segued into Vivaldi's Four Seasons. After dinner, Ranger led me to a blanket he had spread out by a small fountain. We sat and looked at the stars while he fed me a dessert of poached pears with chocolate.

After we finished dessert, we laid out on the blanket, looking at the stars. Clair do Lune was now playing in the background. Ranger rolled onto his side and looked at me. He asked, "If you could wish for anything right now, what would it be?"

I reached up and traced his eyebrow with my fingertips. "I wish we could stay like this forever." I told him. "When I'm with you, I don't worry about anything."

"Worried about what?"

"So many things. I'm worried I'll disappoint the people I love. I'm worried that if I ever have children, I won't be a good mother. I worry about having to give up my dreams." The night air suddenly felt chilly. "Isn't there anything that worries you?"

"Of course there is." he told me. "Believe it or not, I worry about the men downstairs. I worry about Julie. But my biggest worry is that one day something will happen to you, and I won't be there."

"You've always been there when I've needed you." I told him, and kissed him.

Sunday morning dawned early in Ranger's apartment. We spent part of it lost in each other, then showered and went to get breakfast. As we were eating, I confessed. "I have one more worry." When he asked me what it was, I told him, "I'm worried that your family won't like me."

Ranger almost smiled. "Babe, they already love you."

My morning came to a full stop. "What do you mean, 'they already love me'? I've never met any of your family."

"Of course you have." Ranger said matter of factly. "Ella and Luis are my Aunt and Uncle, and Hector is my cousin."

Duh. Ok, that made sense to me. I probably should have made the connection sooner, I just never really thought about it.

"Then, when you were so sad after your break up with Morelli, I asked Celia to help cheer you up."

"Wait a minute." I held up a hand to stop him. "Celia is related to you?" How could I not have noticed that? I felt like an idiot.

"Babe, she's my sister. I only meant to take you to the beach to cheer you up. I thought that if there was another girl there, you would relax a little more. Then everything went out of control. Celia made plans to go shopping with you and brought Maria along."

"Another sister?" At Ranger's nod, I asked, "How many of your sisters have I met?"

"You only met the two, but Elena and Ramona were there also."

"Of course they were." I was hurt and embarrassed, then I started to get pissed. I had joked with his sisters about taking him to Victoria's Secret. I can't believe I said that to his sisters. "I don't suppose your brother was there. Maybe dressed up like mall security?"

Ranger looked at me funny. "Babe, my brother's an accountant in Perth Amboy. He wasn't there."

"Well, gee. At least there's someone besides your parents that I haven't met." Ranger went dead still and his blank face slammed down. I closed my eyes and let out a sigh. "Victor's." I took a long pause, then opened my eyes. "So if I understand this correctly, I've met, or at least had some kind of contact with every female member of your family?" He nodded. "How could you do this to me?" I asked him. By this point my eyes were starting to tear up.

"Babe." Ranger said. "I was just trying to cheer you up. They all liked you."

"That's not the point." Couldn't he see how much this hurt me? By now I was crying openly. "I think I need to leave." I grabbed my purse and shoes and headed for the door.

When the elevator doors opened in the garage, Ranger was leaning against my car. He walked up to me and tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. "Stephanie, what's the matter? Come back upstairs and tell me what's wrong." He pulled me into his embrace.

I shook my head. "You didn't even give me a chance. I need to go home."

I tried to pull away, but he just held me tighter. "I love you, Stephanie."

I held on to him and cried harder. After what seemed like forever, I pulled away from him, got into my car and drove away.

**A/N - Just in case you're wondering, the music that was playing when Stephanie walked out into the garden was Die Moldau by Smetana. It is truly beautiful, but I didn't think Stephanie would know what it was...**


	19. Chapter 19 - Sorry seems to be

_**This is JE's world, Complete with my mistakes. I love the reviews! Thank you so much for letting me know what you think! :-) I'll be at Giovinchinni's...**_

I drove around for a while, not sure where I was going. Before my mind registered it, I was parked in front of Mary Lou's house. She opened her door, took one look at me, and pulled me into a hug. Once I was able to pull back, she smoothed down my hair and said, "Let me get my purse."

She went back inside, and I could hear her from out here. "I'm going out with Stephanie." and "So? Tell your father" and "Here's money for pizza." She really is my best friend. Two minutes later, she was back on the porch, holding her hand out for my keys.

She drove us back to my apartment by way of the liquor store. Mrs. Bestler was in the elevator, playing operator. "Going up, dear?" She asked.

"Second floor, Mrs. Bestler"

"Aah, yes. Better women's dresses." She smiled and pushed the button. When the doors opened on my floor, Mrs. Bestler rested her hand on my arm. "It'll work out, dear." She told me.

When we walked in the door, the light on my answering machine was blinking like crazy. I ignored it, and Mary Lou walked past it into the kitchen. She came out a minute later with Mojitos in hand. "So, what happened?" She asked as she handed me my drink.

"This whole last week has been the best week of my life." I started. Mary Lou already knew the details, we talk to each other all the time. "Last night we had dinner on the roof of his building. There's a whole garden up there that's like its own little world. Then this morning, while we were eating breakfast, I told him that I was nervous about meeting his family. It turns out that I already have, but he didn't tell me who they were."

"What?" ML asks, shocked. "How?"

"Well, the job we went on two weeks ago wasn't really a job. The girl we met at the beach was his sister. The next day, when we went shopping, we were joined by another sister. His other two sisters were at the mall, too."

Mary Lou looked surprised. "And he didn't tell you?"

"No. And it gets worse. The date we went on last week? That was his parents restaurant. His mother and his grandmother were there."

"Oh my god." Mary Lou was stunned. "He took you to meet his grandmother and didn't tell you?"

"Mary Lou, do you remember what I sound like when I eat? How can I ever show my face around them? I cracked jokes with his sisters about taking him shopping for lingerie, and made sex noises in front of his mother and his grandmother while I was eating. I want to die of embarrassment."

I could tell Mary Lou was trying not to laugh. She took our glasses into the kitchen, where I could hear her cracking up. Once she composed herself, she came back out with fresh drinks. "I'm going to assume that since he's a guy, he has no idea what he did wrong?"

"Probably not." I admitted.

"Well, you can let him think about it for a day or two, but you need to talk to him." Mary Lou said. "I've never seen you happier than you were last week, and I don't want you to blow it. From what you've told me, he's worth a little embarrassment."

"He's worth a lot of embarrassment. I just couldn't handle it all at once." I laid my head on Mary Lou's lap. "Oh ML, I'd do anything for him. I just sort of freaked out."

We spent the afternoon talking and drinking. By the time ML needed to go home, we were both too drunk to drive. We called Lenny and had him come pick her up.

Monday morning dawned with the mother of all hangovers. This was going to be painful. I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower. After I was as clean as I was going to get, I shuffled into the kitchen for coffee and aspirin. Then I put on my brave girl face and a pair of sunglasses, and opened the front door.

The smell of hot McDonald's fries stopped me. I looked down. Right in front of my door was the cure, along with a single stargazer lily. I raced to my bedroom window, but his car wasn't in my parking lot. I walked back to my door, and sat down next to his gift.

I like to think I'm a smart, confident, worldly woman, but I have to admit to myself that I screwed up. I love him, and I have to fix this. I'm starting to get an idea, but I'm going to need help. I pick up my phone and dial. "Lula? Do you want to go shopping?"

Two hours later, I was back in my apartment, getting dressed. We had taken the Acura to the mall, but now I needed to leave all my trackers at home. With an extra swipe of mascara for courage, I walked out into the living room. Lula was sitting on my couch eating lunch. "Damn, girl," she said. "You gonna be walking funny for a week once he gets a load of you." I'll keep my fingers crossed, just in case.

Now for the next part of my plan. We got into Lula's Firebird, and she motored off towards Rangeman. I texted Ella that we were on our way.

I had to take off my shoes and climb up 8 flights of stairs while Ella and Luis distracted Ranger. By the time I got to the top, I was ready to collapse. I put Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini on the stereo, poured the wine, and texted Ella with the go.

I was sitting on the blanket when Ranger finally walked through the door. I looked at him over my shoulder as he walked towards me. As he neared, I stood and handed him a glass of wine. "I need to apologize." I told him. "I overreacted."

He put his hand on my waist and rested his forehead against mine. "babe."

"You should have told me, but I shouldn't have left. I'm sorry."

He kissed me. "I'm sorry too, babe. I should have told you."

I took his hand and led him to the blanket. We sat and held each other. After we had been sitting there for a while, Ranger looked me up and down. "What's with the outfit you're almost wearing?"

I smiled. "I thought I might need to persuade you, so I asked Lula to help me shop for courage. Apparently courage requires spandex and truly excellent shoes. On the brighter side, it also comes off really easily."

Ranger lowered me down onto the blanket. "Babe."


	20. Chapter 20 - Rex gets comfy

_**This is my take on JE's world. All mistakes are mine. Thanks yet again for all the feedback! I'm going to be riding on the bus all day with Sally Sweet if you need me.**_

The next week passed in what I hope is a normal pace. I went to work chasing skips during the day, and spent my nights on 7. Ranger and I made love like we would never get enough of each other, but we also spent hours talking. Ok, so I spend more time talking than he does, but he listens to me, and that counts. At Ranger's insistence, we had dinner with Ella and Luis on 7. By the time they left, I was more comfortable with the idea of dinner with Ranger's family, and I was absolutely sure I wanted Ella to adopt me.

Rex has even made his way over to Rangeman. I've been spending so much time here that Ranger picked him up one day as a surprise for me. Rex doesn't seem to mind. The way he looks at it, Ranger's kitchen counter looks pretty much the same as my kitchen counter does from inside his soup can.

On Thursday, Ranger approached the topic of having me work for Rangeman. "It's a good idea," he told me over dinner. "You already know how everything works here. You do good work on all the searches. The guys are already used to working with you. Besides, you already have the Rangeman clothes." He's right. Every time I had come to work for Rangeman, Ella bought me more outfits. It seems like I've always had some of my clothes in his closet, and more were finding their way here every day. I'm currently wearing underwear that Ella bought for me and embroidered with the Rangeman logo. Ranger shows me his appreciation every time I wear them.

I smiled at him over my Quinoa salad with shrimp and a lime ginger dressing. I decided to tease him just a little bit. "You're just worried about the Acura. We're coming up on the one month anniversary, and I haven't even come close to destroying it. What made you pick that car anyway?"

He gave me the almost smile that I have come to love. "Babe, I don't care about the car. It's the driver that I want to keep safe. Short of an armored car, this was the safest one I could get you."

I walked over to him and sat on his lap. "I really like the car, and I love the man who gave it to me." I put my arms around his neck and kissed him. "But I don't think I want to work here right now."

"Why not, Babe?" Ranger kissed me back. "There are benefits to being here during the day."

"Because I like my job." I told him. "And I'm really getting better at it. I haven't rolled around in garbage in a month, and Vinnie hasn't had to call you as much, because I'm keeping things up to speed."

Ranger gave me his 200 watt smile. "I'm proud of you, babe." He kissed me again. "The offer's there if you want it, though."

I looked into his eyes. There was nothing but love and support there. Just by telling me he was proud of me, he made me feel like I could fly. "I know." I ran my fingers through his hair. "I'm a lucky girl, Carlos." I stood up and walked towards the bedroom, dinner forgotten. "Would you like to get lucky, too?"

"Babe."

On Friday, I had dinner at my parents house. When I got to the house, there was an extra place set at the table. I was ready to turn around and leave, when grandma told me that she had a date tonight. He was coming here for dessert, then they were going to a viewing. My mother was silent on the subject of my love life. Instead, she filled the meal with the usual Burg gossip. In her own way, she's trying to keep the commentary off of me, and I love her for making the effort.

We were clearing off the dinner dishes to make way for dessert, when there was a knock at the door. I walked over to let grandma's date in. "Mr. Grabble? What are you doing here?"

Grandma nudged me out of her way and opened the door. "Morty here is my date tonight," she informed me. "It really is a pip of a story. I ran into him at the liquor store the other day."

"Where I was buying a bottle of wine" Morty interjected. He put the emphasis on 'buying'.

"And we got to talking." Grandma continued. "He wanted to thank you for your help. One thing led to another, and we decided to go to the viewing together tonight."

That's my grandma. "You two kids have fun tonight." I smiled all the way through dessert and the drive home.

I fobbed my way up to 7, and found Ranger in his office. I hopped up on his desk and waited for him to finish what he was doing. "I have some bad news for you."

Ranger arched an eyebrow at me. "You look remarkably happy for someone with bad news, babe."

He was right, so I just laughed. "I've decided that I want to be just like grandma when I grow up."

Ranger chuckled and pulled me into a hug. "I'll try to keep up."


	21. Chapter 21 - an okey dokey finale

_**For the last time, this is my take on JE's world. All mistakes are mine. I would like to thank everybody who took the time to read my story. Seriously, y'all rock! Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try to break into Rangeman...**_

On Sunday, I left Rangeman bright and early. I headed over to my apartment where my arsenal is. In less than an hour, I was showered, shaved, exfoliated, and polished up as much as I could be. I was standing in the middle of my bedroom with pretty much my whole closet spread out around me. I had decided to wear a dress, now I just needed to figure out which one.

Half an hour later, I settled for a flower print sundress with a sweetheart neckline and wide straps, and strappy sandals. I blasted my hair with the dryer and added three coats of mascara for confidence. I was as ready as I was going to get by the time Ranger knocked and let himself in. He gave me the once over, and almost smiled at me. "Babe."

As we drove to Newark, I was hit by a thought. "You know, when I left Joe, Grandma Bella gave me one last parting curse. She swore I would never find a new man. I wonder if she ever considered the fact that I don't need anyone new."

Ranger chuckled. "I'll send her a gift basket when we get home."

When we got to the Manoso house, the first thing I noticed was all the children. They were pretty much everywhere, chasing each other across the small yard. Several of them stopped and shouted for their Uncle Carlos. Ranger smiled and greeted them, but kept hold of my hand. We walked into the house, and I was struck by the similarities between his family home and mine. The men were in the living room watching baseball too loudly on tv. Some of the women were setting the dining room table, and I could hear others in the kitchen.

Ranger led me into the kitchen. "Mother, grandmother, I would like you to meet Stephanie Plum," he announced to the general chaos of the kitchen. I think my heart stopped for a second, but his mother smiled, said, "It's nice to finally meet you", and pulled me into a hug. She then passed me to Ranger's grandmother who said something to me in Spanish and kissed my cheek again.

I was introduced to the entire family. There were a lot of people, and I'm sure it will take some time to remember who's who. My overall impression is that this is the type of family I wish I had growing up. Most of the adults eat in the dining room, where there is a huge table. Some eat with the children in the backyard, where there are picnic tables spread out. There was a lot of laughter coming from both seating areas.

It is very late by the time we're ready to leave. Celia walked us to Ranger's car. "I'm glad you could come tonight, Stephanie."

I tell her honestly, "I'm glad I came, too. I really enjoyed getting to meet the whole family."

She kissed my cheek and leaned in to whisper to me. "Anytime you want to go to the beach, let me know. And, since no one else shared any embarrassing Carlos stories, ask him about the month we spent trying to convince a four year old Carlos that he was a girl. There are pictures."

I totally lost it. I can't remember the last time I laughed that hard. I told her that the next time she was in Trenton, to give me a call and we'd get together. Ranger didn't look thrilled with that thought.

We hop into the Turbo, and Ranger pulls away from the curb. "I have one more place to show you," he tells me. We pull up to a medium sized house with a gated yard. Ranger used his key fob to open the gate. I can barely breathe. I'm pretty sure I know what this is. Even though there is a driveway, Ranger had parked on the street, so we walk up the driveway towards the door. "I haven't been here in about 2 months," he continues. "I've decided to sell it, but I thought you'd like to see it first."

We walk around the back side of the house and enter the Basement. The entire downstairs is a game room, which has a pool table, some pinball machines, a huge tv, and a bar. My father would love this. Ranger leads me upstairs, and we walk into the foyer of the house. I can see tastefully masculine furniture in the living room. A bookshelf lines one wall, and it is filled. I can see glimpses of the kitchen and dining room towards the rear of the house. Everything looks professionally decorated. Ranger takes me up the last flight of stairs. On the right side of the short hallway, there is a guest bedroom, guest bathroom, and an office. The left side of the hallway only has one door, which we stop in front of. Ranger leans his forehead against mine, and seems to take breath for courage. I kiss him, and he opens the door.

The master bedroom is sumptuous. From the king sized bed with a leather wrapped headboard, to the sitting area by the windows, complete with a small fireplace. One wall is mirrored, but I can tell that the mirrors are covering the closet space. This room is Ranger, but it's Carlos at the same time. He opens the first of the mirrored sections to show me some of the photos on the shelves. Pictures of a young Carlos with his family, all of them smiling. An old, tattered baseball. They show the boy he once was. He opens the next section and the shelves contain pictures of an older Carlos, both in high school and college. The third section contains pictures from his Army days, including the formal pose that every soldier gets when they complete basic and the picture of his Ranger unit that I have seen, the Navy SEAL cap that I have worn, and his dog tags. There is also one small picture of a very pregnant Rachel and a lot of pictures of Julie. There is one more section, but Ranger has walked over to the sitting area and is looking out the window.

I walk up behind him and put my arms around his waist. "Thank you for showing this to me. I love you, Carlos." He turns and kisses me.

The instant his tongue touches mine, I am ready to combust. He pulls me to him, and I can feel his need. He picks me up and carries me over to the bed. He sets me down and unzips my dress. I sat up as he slid my dress down my legs, so that I could start on his clothes. By the time we are laying next to each other, there is nothing between us. I used my whole body to show him how much I love him. There is no need for words.

Afterwards, as we lay in bed, Ranger asked me why I didn't open the last door. I told him that I had seen more of him in the first four than I ever thought I would. "I don't understand why you want to sell this place, though. It's beautiful, and it's close to your family."

Ranger answered, "I need to move it closer to my heart. I've been looking for places in Trenton. The one you looked at with me is still available, but I don't think I'm ready for that house, yet." I agree. That house was too large for the two of us. He continues, "I want your input, though. I want it to be your home, too."

"Are you asking me to move in with you?"

Ranger gets up out of the bed and opens the last door. On the shelf is a single picture. It was taken outside the bonds office, and I don't think either of us was aware of it at the time. Ranger and I had our arms around each other. We were smiling, and looking like we were about to kiss. One of his guys must have taken it.

"I'm offering you the batcave, babe."

" I thought the batcave was forever." I say to him.

Carlos smiles. "The batcave_ is_ forever."


End file.
